gamescom, the world’s largest event for computer and video games is to remain in Cologne. Koelnmesse GmbH and game – the Association for the German Games Industry, announced this today. The two partners agreed upon a new contract.
gamescom has taken place in Cologne since 2009. 370,000 people from 114 countries travelled to Cologne last year for its tenth edition. With the participation of 1,037 exhibitors from 56 countries new records were set. As such, gamescom was not only able to confirm its role as the largest international games festival and Europe’s leading business platform for the games industry, but was indeed able to further enhance it.
“gamescom has experienced a unique development and has been able to increase its relevance for gamers and trade visitors year after year since 2009. The new contract strengthens the partnership between game and Koelnmesse and enables us to jointly achieve further dynamic development for gamescom and thus align it to meet the trends of our industry even more efficiently,” said Ralf Wirsing, Managing Director of Ubisoft Germany and Chairman of game.
For his part, Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse sees “the seamless continuation of the good collaboration with game as a positive consequence of the unprecedented development that gamescom has experienced in Cologne: From the very start it was the leader in its segment, today it is an undisputed international hotspot. Cologne stands for gamescom and gamescom stands for Cologne. We want to further expand this good and strong connection to the benefit of the games industry and of the trade fair location.”
Felix Falk, Executive Director of game, said: “The joint strategy process of the past months has proven that Koelnmesse is exactly the right partner for us. The huge support lent to gamescom and the games industry by the City of Cologne and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia is an important ingredient for the unique success of gamescom, which we now intend to further expand.”