In early March, the German Games Industry Association (GGIA) and Gamescom commissioners were looking to stick things out despite growing coronavirus concerns. Well, it looks like said pandemic has caused the two to capitulate in that Gamescom 2020 will likely take place digitally in late August.
The Gamescom organizers have updated their plans for this year according to gamescom.de, where existing digital formats such as Gamescom: Opening Night Live and Gamescom now will be “significantly expanded” with “new modules added.”
Summarizing what the GGIA and commissioners over Gamescom want to do consists of expanding plans for digital formats, evaluating the physical and digital portions of the event sometime in the mid-part of May, and if necessary, reimburse potential visitors and exhibitors.
In simple terms, the physical side of the games event sounds like it might be cut moving into May, but the digital side of the event is still on and now will be expanded to show off more stuff unlike before.
More of this is expanded on by Gamescom’s managing director of games — Felix Falk:
“Millions of fans worldwide are excited about Gamescom 2020. That is why we are determined to celebrate the latest news, announcements and world premieres together with the community again this year at the end of August. In view of the corona crisis, we are now expanding all digital formats at full speed so that Gamescom 2020 can at least take place digitally in any case. We already reach millions of gamescom fans worldwide with the global show Gamescom: Opening Night Live and the Gamescome now portal. Further expansion of our digital strategy is the way to go right now.”
Tagging along with Falk is Oliver Frese — the event’s managing director at the Koelnmesse — saying the following:
“Gamescom and Koelnmesse already rank among the digital pioneers in the international trade fair landscape. We therefore also see the current corona crisis as a chance to implement digital event formats even more. Gamescom 2020 offers the perfect platform for this. When we reassess the situation in mid-May for all gamescom formats at the Cologne fair grounds, the health of our visitors will be our top priority. It goes without saying that preparations are well underway both physically and digitally.”
Companies originally planned to appear as the first exhibitors but now will likely serve as digital presenters consist of the below names:
- Bandai Namco
- Bethesda Softworks
- Capcom
- CD Projekt Red
- Electronic Arts
- Microsoft / Xbox
- NCSoft
- Nintendo
- Sega
- THQ Nordic
- Ubisoft
Finally, the show is slated to go live in Cologne, Germany, from August 25th, 2020. The Opening Night Live event, like last year, will start before the actual event goes live.
