Interview: While GDC falters, Gamescom goes from strength to strength

At Gamescom Latam in Brazil earlier this year, GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Tim Endres, director of Gamescom at Koelnmesse, and Stefan Heikhaus, his counterpart at Game, the German Games Industry Association.

Naturally, the growth of Gamescom Latam was on the discussion agenda, but Endres and Heikhaus also addressed complaints about last year’s event, the possibility of adding more shows under the Gamescom brand, and how the Cologne event – which attracted more than 350,000 visitors last year – can help to affect the image of video games in the eyes of policymakers. But first, we looked ahead to this year’s Gamescom.

How are things looking for Gamescom in August?

Tim Endres: First of all, we had an excellent early bird result. Exhibitors increased by over 15%, and ticketing is also running very well. But in terms of the program and what’s happening in Cologne, first of all, there’s the integration of Gamescom Dev. Devcom was always part of the Gamescom week, but now Gamescom starts on Monday, August 24 with Gamescom Dev.

It’s not just a rebranding, it’s a complete integration into the Gamescom ecosystem. We use the same stages, so the big stage of Gamescom Dev is also the stage where the political opening will take place and the Gamescom Congress will take place. Then we have Gamescom Biz, our digital business platform where the whole industry can connect, that’s now all on the same level. All business people are under one roof, with no need to decide to switch from one event to another. So it’s perfect for matchmaking opportunities.

It’s interesting that ticket sales are going quickly this year. I’ve heard similar from the organisers of Nordic Game: they said they sold 33% more tickets compared with the equivalent time point last year. I’m wondering whether there’s a direct relation to the decline in attendance we’ve seen at GDC. Do you think people are skipping GDC and going to Gamescom instead?

TE: Difficult to say. Of course, we see what happens in the event ecosystem worldwide. It’s not our job to comment on this, but what we see is the strong growth of Gamescom, especially because we took place during the pandemic and invested a lot. We have relevant digital platforms, and now we’re hybrid, and that seems to be the perfect setting for the industry.

Why isn’t there something equivalent to Gamescom in the UK?

Stefan Heikhaus: You cannot start up an event like Gamescom suddenly. It’s a long process, and many mistakes have been made in the past. I think that the team that ran Gamescom made a couple of very good decisions: not only the change in location [from Leipzig], but also decisions about which direction we develop, which trends we follow, what we do price-wise, how we work together with all the exhibitors. There’s so many things that come together, and I think this is something that is important if anyone wants to start a new event. I think it’s difficult to do something like that. You have to start small.

One of the things I hear from developers I’ve spoken to is how important government help is for that industry. How important is that for the games industry in Germany?

SH: If you want to grow a market – not only in our industry, but in others – it’s always an argument to have governmental support, and tax support is the most effective methodology. I think it is very important to get over a certain threshold with games, to create a basic development in your region, which then automatically attracts others to come and build games in your region.

Of course, at least in Germany, it’s always been questioned by some people. We have a continuous discussion about it. Due to its sensitivity, it’s important that you talk to everyone involved to get the best out of it for all sides: for the government, for us, for the games, for the game developers, and for the community.

How important has Gamescom itself been in terms of influencing that dialogue with the government?

SH: I think it’s no secret that Gamescom helped over the past 20 years in terms of how people perceive games and how they think about it – going from a very negative view that it’s very dangerous to kids to a more, let’s call it “adult” view, because there are also a lot of positive things. And I think that bringing policymakers into contact with games and what they mean to people was very important.

In that sense, if a politician sees 300,000 people enjoying games at your event, it makes the point obvious.

SH: Yes. They see themselves and then they go back with these impressions, and then they make up their own mind.

In terms of Gamescom Latam, what made you decide to come to Brazil?

TE: Well, first of all, Gamescom nowadays is not only a single event in August, it’s a complete ecosystem for the whole gaming community. The LATAM region is one of the most growing and one of the most dynamic markets.

Do you feel like it’s the next big region that could emerge, or has it already emerged?

TE: It’s always difficult to say what’s going to be the next big region, but what we see is that it’s growing very fast, that it’s very dynamic, and that’s why we are here with Gamescom Latam.

SH: I just would like to add that the idea to grow Gamescom beyond the borders of Germany is quite old, but you also need the right circumstances. We worked together with Gustavo [Steinberg] and his team – he had established the BIG Festival here – so we combined the power of Gamescom with what he already had achieved with the BIG Festival. If you look at Gamescom Asia, it’s a similar situation – we merged with the Thailand Game Show.

You’ve got some big names on the show floor, like Nvidia, AMD, and Nintendo, but I noticed Sony and Microsoft don’t have a booth. Is it difficult to get exhibitors to come?

TE: In terms of exhibitors, we see a strong growth at Gamescom Latam, but of course there is room for things to improve. It’s the third edition of Gamescom Latam, and in the first years, you cannot expect a Gamescom like in Cologne, which reached more than 1,500 exhibitors. It takes time, and each region has its specifics, and that’s absolutely okay.

What’s your aim for this event? Do you want to focus on specifically Brazilian games or Latin American games, or do you want to bring outside companies to showcase their games in Brazil?

TE: Gamescom Latam is the platform for the LATAM market. So it’s the right platform for everyone who wants to enter this market, make business, show their games to the community, and get their games noticed in the region. So it’s focused on entering the market, but also on making announcements which are relevant worldwide.

SH: This question, how important is Gamescom Latam for the rest of the world versus Latin America, is something we should talk about in a few years. I mean, it’s the third edition – Gamescom is now in its 17th year, and we grew from a local event into the world’s biggest gaming event. So I think we should give these two additional Gamescoms a bit of time, and then see how successfully they develop.

Do you have plans to expand into any other areas of the world?

TE: We have Gamescom Cologne, we have Gamescom Latam, and we have Gamescom Asia, and right now we are focusing on those three events. Of course, we are always having a look at what’s happening in other regions, but there are no current plans to launch in the next year.

Last year there was some criticism from some of the exhibitors at Gamescom Latam, where they talked of penalties for leaving their booth. How has Gamescom responded to those criticisms?

SH: In the first place, we left this to the local business. We supported them with all our knowledge, they came back to us, and we discussed what is the best procedure, but they managed it themselves. And as far as I know, they were able to resolve all the issues we had back then.

If you have one of the biggest brands in this event market, then of course there are things where you step into pitfalls or where you’re clearly doing something wrong. And then the most important thing is they then react in the right way, and I believe that the Gamescom Latam team did exactly that.

I mean, you can see it, because they changed the model. So you have these zones, for example, where they bring together all the BIG Festival games, and they have the dev area where a couple of hundred games applied for it, and then they chose 10 who are now present there. So they made changes in the programs to prevent this from happening again.

TE: And in general, Gamescom invests a lot for the indie developers. This year we will invest a a six-digit sum in our Gamescom Awesome Indies Showcase to make the platform more relevant for indie developers and to give them a very strong digital platform under the Gamescom brand to showcase their games and all their creativity.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.