games-convention-online posts

The organizers of the annual Games Convention Online have announced that plans for the third annual event devoted to online games have been canceled. The event was to have been held in Leipzig, Germany on July 7-8. In a statement on its official web site the organizers stated, " ... the idea on its own didn't suffice to organize an economically successful trade fair and congress."

Previously the organizers held a massive games convention in Leipzig that started in 2002 and attracted most of the major game publishers. However in 2009 the game industry decided to support a rival event, the Gamescom show in Cologne. The Leipzig team launched a new event devoted to online gaming that started in 2009 and which brought in over 43,000 attendees. However the 2010 event was closed to the public and there was no word on how many people attended.

A new game event devoted to online game titles has apparently hit a snag. Organizers of Games Convention Online have announced that the event, which launched in 2009, will now be a trade event only with no access to the general public. According to a press release the number of pre-registered tickets was not enough to support a public event. The show has also eliminated its plans for a fourth day of event; it will now be held from July 8-10 in Leipzig, Germany

When Games Convention Online launched last August the event brought in over 43,000 attendees, which is a solid number in most regards. Event organizers claims that this year's show will be bigger than 2009 with over 30 companies already registered as attending.

A few months ago, the first edition of the new Games Convention Online in Leipzig, Germany brought in over 43,000 attendees. That was a lot more than expected, especially since the event had no major game publishers attending and concentrated on the online and MMO game market.

This week the event's organizers announced that the 2010 version of Games Convention Online will be held from July 8-11. This is about three weeks earlier compared to the 2009 event. Also an extra day has been added to this year's convention "to give business customers more scope and time to initiate and conclude business deals." Will the convention grow even larger for its sophomore year? Maybe.

When the revamped version of the Leipzig Games Convention, now known as Game Convention Online, announced this week they were expecting over 50,000 attendees we stated that in our opinion that was a tad optimistic. Today we were proven right as a press release from the now concluded three day event announced that 43,000 attendees made it to their first convention.

That's still some impressive first year numbers for a games convention that was devoted entirely to online and MMO gaming with little backing from the major game publishers. It was still slightly higher than the revamped E3's numbers of 41,000 attendees this year. The Games Convention Online's organizers stated they will be back in the summer of 2010 but specific dates were not announced.

Last year, the Leipzig Games Convention was boasting of having over 200,000 attendees who came to the single largest games convention in the world. However things are a little different this year for the event. With the major players of the games industry in Europe now putting their support to the new gamescom event in Cologue next month, the Leipzig event opens up today with an emphasis on online and MMO games.

Even with the changes and the fact that the event lacks the big boys in terms of exhibitors, the revamped Games Convention Online claims it expects to see 50,000 attendees at the event. We suspect that number is a tad optimistic but if they can achieve that number it will still be more people than this year's this year's E3 (which had about 40,000 attendees). The new Games Convention Online runs until Sunday, August 2.

Last year we reported on the battle between two Germany-based games conventions; the Leipzig Games Convention, which has surged into the single largest such convention on the planet (over 200,000 people attended in 2008) and the upstart GamesCom which will have its inaugural event in August in Cologne. GamesCom has the support of all the major game publishers, however, which means that the Leipzig Games Convention is basically forced to blink.

However its organizers are not giving up yet. They have decided to morph their event into the smaller scale Games Convention Online. The new event will be held on July 31-August 2 in Leipzig and will be devoted to all sorts of online-only games, including PC, browser and mobile titles. Online game tournaments and a role-playing event are also planned. Will this new event be enough to keep the lights on at Leipzig? Stay tuned.