Organization wants gamescom to continue as a partly physical event in August

The organization of the gamescom wants to hold the game fair at the end of August as a partly physical and partly online event. Players should be welcome again in the exhibition halls in the German city of Cologne to play new games themselves.

The organization will coordinate the hygiene rules with the German authorities, the site shows. The intention is that only ‘super fans’ of certain games come to play games on the exhibition floor. Moreover, it will be queued digitally, claims the organization. How this works exactly is not yet clear. Representatives of companies can also meet on the exhibition floor.

For other gamers, the rest of the event, including live streams and events, will be digital. The intention is for the fair to take place from 25 to 29 August. Last year’s version was only digital due to the ban on major events in Germany due to the corona pandemic.

The gamescom is not the only physical tech fair that is planned. GSMA also wants its telecom fair Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to take place physically at the end of June; there too, the meeting with measures should be safe. MWC is not a consumer fair and it is uncertain whether the fair will actually go ahead. Several major exhibitors have already said they do not want to come because of the risks to their employees due to the pandemic.

Gamescom 2018