gamescon posts

It's not a secret that NCsoft has avoided having an official presence at E3 for the past few years and E3 2010 will be no exception. That means that they won't be showing off Guild Wars 2, the long awaited MMO from developer ArenaNet. In fact in ArenaNet's latest blog entry, its marketing head Chris Lye has called E3 an "anti-fan" event. He added, "As the marketing guy, if I'm going to spend a boatload of money on a booth, videos, props, etc., I want to be able to share it with the folks who'll geek-out on it the most – the fans!."

Which is why ArenaNet has chosen to give Gamescom 2010 in Cologne, Germany the honor of being the first public place to play a build of Guild Wars 2 when the consumer/trade event is held on August 19-22. In addition the game will be playable at PAX Prime in Seattle a couple of weeks later on September 3-5. And if you are lucky enough to be attending San Diego Comic-Con on July 22-25 you can still meet up with ArenaNet team members (although the game itself won't be there).

In another sign that the newly revamped and larger E3 is gaining traction in the games industry, Ubisoft has announced it will not be holding its annual Ubidays press event as it has done in 2007 and 2008. The big press event for the publisher is being retired in favor of showing off its games at other events such as E3.

Ubisoft decided to hold its own Ubidays event after E3 switched over from being a large trade show to a small invite-only media event for the past two years. With E3 going back to a larger trade show format in 2009, Ubisoft will now be showcasing its upcoming games at E3 in early June, along with the new European GamesCon in August and the Tokyo Game Show this fall.

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.

It looks like the fight between the two major consumer-trade conventions in Germany has finally come to a head. GamesCOM, the new event to be held in the city of Cologne, has announced they have switched their dates from early September to August 19-23, 2009. That happens to be the same dates as the Leipzig Games Convention which last August had over 200,000 attendees.

GamesCOM's advantage is that they have the support of the industry consortium BIU which in theory means most of the major game publishers would want to attend their event. However, organizers of the Leipzig Games Convention claimed after last August's event they also had broad support to attend their show. Clearly, one or the other has to give in. Which will it be?

Last month the Leipzig Games Convention was held in Germany and organizers boasted of 203,000 attendees. While the future of the Leipzig event is in question due to 2009's launch of GAMEScon in Cologne, Games Convention organizers have already announced they are thinking of moving to the North American market.

Now comes work via Gamekyo that the first such event might not happen in the United States but our neighbor to the north. According to a statement they received from Games Convention, "'We'll decide about the place of the new event in cooperation with the games industry. It seems to become a city in Canada, not in the US." Certainly the US is pretty full at the moment with events like GDC, E3, Penny Arcade Expo and E For All Expo, not to mention large events like CES and San Diego Comic-Con which have games as part of their exhibits.

Earlier this week we reported on the massive success of the 2008 Leipzig Games Convention which announced that the five day trade and consumer video/PC game event in Leipzig, Germany had brought in 203,000 attendees last week. The organizers announced their 2009 dates and even hinted at plans for a North American expansion.

Well, the organizers of the Cologne based GAMEScon came out with their own statement, basically saying, "Leipzig is doomed." The event was announced last year by the industry consortium BIU and will be held in Cologne on September 9-13. Gamasutra reports that the organizers of the event claim to have broad industry support, adding, "Whatever happens in Germany in 2009 outside of Cologne cannot claim to represent this sector." Ouch. Them's fightin' words. We should see in a few months which German games convention comes out on top.