Gamescom 2020 goes fully digital.

Gamescom is the worlds biggest gaming show and was obviously cancelled to the public due to the global Covid-19 outbreak, but thanks to the internet and some reorganising Gamescom 2020 is set to take place after all – in a purely digital format from Thursday, August 27, 2020, to Sunday, August 30, 2020.

You will be able to watch Gamescom 2020 over at www.gamescom.global where the Opening Night Live segment – produced by Geoff Keighley – will kick-off the 2020 event. Showing off world premiers and the latest gaming announcements this opening show will hope to set the tone for the rest of Gamescom and also set the hype-bar for the following days.

IGN will be handling the English broadcasts whilst Webedia will be catering to the German-speaking audience. Both productions will have an extensive program of events on a daily basis, featuring news about games, interviews with games developers, and videos of exclusive demos shown or played.

“We are thrilled to partner with Gamescom again this year. We met with enormous success with our latest Summer of Gaming program. Even in these difficult times, we are still registering new user records for data transfer on all of our platforms. We look forward to producing the Gamescom shows and helping to bring our public throughout the world closer together. Gamescom 2020 will be an event that should not be missed,”

Yael Prough, EVP and General Manager at IGN.

Michael Swaim will present the daily highlights of each Gamescom day in the show produced by IGN. He will discuss gaming culture themes like cosplay, e-sports, and hopefully, gently tease some news out of his guests about their upcoming titles. Other planned show formats for the weekend are:

  • Gamescom: Daily Show (German, Friday + Saturday): produced by Webedia Germany, the show will also deal with the diversity of the gaming world and the highlights of the day. Current themes and trends will be discussed with exciting discussion partners and new products presented.
  • Gamescom: Awesome Indies (English, Saturday), produced by IGN, puts a spotlight on some of the most original and exciting games coming out of the indie developer scene. Viewers receive insight into the latest games, trends, and developments of the scene in exciting interviews and discussions with developers and influencers. There is an opportunity to play, to take part in contests, and to celebrate together with the best of the best from the indie world.
  • The Gamescom: Best Of Show (English, Sunday) is produced by IGN and is the spectacular show concluding Gamescom 2020. We present the highlights of the entire Gamescom here. The cosplay competition takes place as the big finale in this context, and the Gamescom award will also be presented. The content will be produced at several studio locations in the USA and Germany, from which studio and show guests, among others, will be received and broadcast. All “official partners” of Gamescom have the opportunity to become part of the shows. This will be possible with exclusive content through editorial channels or by booking the advertising slots available for every show.

The last time I personally visited Gamescom was in 2012 and it dwarfs any gaming event I’ve been to since. The entirety of EGX at Birmingham’s NEC or ExCel could have been fitted into one of the halls at the mighty Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany. But, it waits to be seen how the scale of this event translates to the digital medium. Gamescom 2020 will need big exclusives, and interesting news and features – accompanied by slick production values on the daily shows to determine if digital is the way forward.

For myself, I love the hands-on of the show floor, playing demo’s and soaking up the atmosphere. I use the massive event as an excuse for a mini-holiday as Gamescom takes over Cologne for the weekend and it turns the whole city into a great tourist destination. I pray that Gamescom can return to a more normal format in 2021.