Gamescom 2025 interview: a dynamic event for an ever-changing industry
By Kirk McKeand
Gamescom, a major gaming event held in Cologne since 2009 and the most significant on the calendar after the death of E3, is still going strong. Co-organized by the German Games Industry Association and Koelnmesse – with the former focusing on strategy and politics, and the latter on operational logistics – the event attracts over 335,000 visitors and 1,500 exhibitors from 72 countries, with a significant digital reach on top of that. Look out over the show floor from the business area and it’s like an ant colony – a sea of people all hoping to catch a glimpse of the next big thing in games.
But it’s even more than just games these days. The event has evolved to include various community areas and has seen growth in non-endemic partners like Netflix and Disney+. Despite challenges like the pandemic and industry changes, gamescom remains a significant global event that consistently breaks its own records.
I sat down with Tim Endres, director of gamescom, and Felix Falk, managing director of game – The German Games Industry Association – to chat about gamescom 2025.
DBLTAP: How does what you two do overlap? How do you work together to run the show?
Felix Falk: So the basic structure is that we as Association, we are the brand owner of gamescom. We have 500 members, and we founded the brand. We are co-organizers while Koelnmesse is completely in charge of the operational stuff on site. We are more involved as Association when it comes to concept, strategy, future developments, policy stuff and politicians, a lot stuff like that, and also to ensure the connection between gamescom and our members – because that's part of the success of gamescom, is that it's a well known, broad industry event for everyone. We also have a gamescom committee, the main committee, with the biggest exhibitors and our members in there, and they decide strategic development to ensure that the event and gamescom is in line with what the industry wants.
DBLTAP: You mentioned the brand of gamescom – it's a lowercase ‘g’ in ‘gamescom’, right, officially? But people still cap up the G, they sometimes cap up the C…
FF: I've seen many things. I do still see, now and then, gamescon, because some people think it's ‘con’ for ‘convention’, but this gives us the chance to say it's ‘gamescom’ like ‘community’. The community is our core of gamescom. So, yeah, I take it as a chance to tell people what gamescom is about.
DBLTAP: How do you balance the two sides of it? Because, like you say, it is a community event, right? That's the main focus. But then obviously you've got the media stuff, and in the business lounge, a lot of businesses conducted there. So did that just kind of happen as part of the evolution of it naturally? Or was that something you were aiming for from the beginning?
Tim Endres: Well, the B2B and B2C part of Gamescom is from the very beginning, since 2009 and also the fact that at gamescom, the whole city of Cologne is celebrating the games. It's not only happening on the show floor, it's also happening in the city center, and that's very unique. And yeah, of course, over the years, there came more and more different communities. Take, for example, the indie area or the little family area, merchandise, cards and boards since last year and so on. And so this means gamescom grows each year. That is, of course, always a challenge to manage all those different needs from the different communities. We offer different platforms, different areas for the different communities, and so all those areas are like events within the event. And that's what makes gamescom so different, and the place to be for all communities, and the same goes for digital – gamescom is hybrid today – and we deliver our content to all those different communities worldwide and have a massive reach.
FF: Also, the developer community and the business community are also communities, and that's how we started thinking about it. Of course, nowadays it's even more complex, big and diverse, but it's a 360 degree festival, and so all sorts of things are happening. I do a full week at gamescom, and I never find the time to see everything. So there's a camping site, there's a festival, there's cosplay, there's retro, there's big, small games, esports – it's huge. It's more than 30 football fields alone within the main area, and things like the gamescom camp or the city festivals even outside. For us, it's important to build the stage for the most important games festival of the world, as international as it is, not only onsite, but also digital. So that makes it quite complex.
DBLTAP: What kind of feedback do you get from local businesses? Because every year, for example, a million game journalists descend on a certain Irish bar. So there's local bars and shops that get inundated with people – are they pleased about that?
FF: I'm not from Cologne. Tim is from Cologne, so he knows it. But since I'm involved with gamescom, I just love the city, because the people really enjoy and celebrate games, even if they are not gamers. If you come to gamescom, to Cologne, the whole city is vibrating and is celebrating games. When you compare it to other events like E3, when I went to E3 years ago, I went two blocks further down the road, I couldn't tell there's a games event nearby. It's totally different. In Cologne, the whole area, you can see gamescom everywhere. So that's part of why gamescom is so great, also to people from abroad.
TE: [Local businesses are], of course, very, very pleased when half a million people come to gamescom. The feedback is overwhelming, and they really missed it during the pandemic. They're very happy that gamescom is back and bigger than ever before, with more than 1500 exhibitors from 72 countries.
FF: It's not only financially. If you take a cab, for example, you should just ask the taxi driver what he thinks about gamescom. He will not say it's good income for me, but he will say, I love gamescom. Then he starts emotionally to discuss everything. So you can actually tell that people love it.
DBLTAP: You've got shows now in Asia and South America, is there any will to fill the void left by E3 in the US?
FF: Some say yes, some say no. I think it's a question of what the industry needs. So in Southeast Asia and Latin America, we were in close contact with our partners there and with the industry, not only our members, but also the local industry, with the associations, noticing that there is a need for a global event like gamescom joining forces with local events and making a gamescom Asia and games come LATAM. I don't know honestly, if the industry in the US wants a global event with us – that would be something they would need to decide if they do want this. Maybe there's no need for it while everyone comes to gamescom, and this is the global main event. Because, as Tim just said, after having 64 countries participating in gamescom last year, it's 72 now – the international reach is growing every year. It’s the global event for the games industry already.
DBLTAP: Some of the big publishers are opting for their own live streams over coming to traditional shows. Do you feel like those publishers are missing out by not taking part?
TE: Well, the digital show standalone can't bring the value of gamescom as a hybrid event. The USP of Gamescom is that we have this physical event with all this community activation and emotions and so on, combined with our digital forms like gamescom Opening Night Live or Awesome Indies for the indie developers, which then bring the content to the world. So that's much more value, and you can see it also in numbers of exhibitors, more than 1500 exhibitors from more than 72 countries. That's a massive plus compared to the previous years, and that's the best indicator that gamescom brings more value to our partners than just the digital showcases.
FF: At the same time, I cannot tell you who's participating in gamescom Opening Night Live, but we all will see on Tuesday, and they are part of Gamescom as well.
DBLTAP: Have there been any changes in the industry over the past few years that you've had to react to?
FF: Constantly. Every year we have to react to a very dynamic games industry, which is stressful for the team, but we love it because we stay dynamic and we keep on track with the industry. That's what's needed to fulfill the expectation of the industry. Just to pick out two things, with covid and the digital showcases, we experienced that the expectation for Opening Night Live has changed so now people are showcasing and then next day you can actually play the game, or you have the follow up developer talk, where you go into a deeper experience of the title or something. Second thing, you've seen the layoffs and studio closures in the past two years. There were tough times for the games industry, so we came up with a program, starting last year, for unemployed people from the industry who are able to get free tickets, for example. If the industry needs it, we build it into gamescom.