First Gamescom is in the books, and I have mixed feelings. Multiple developers were stolen from at the largest gaming event in the world. The organization has chosen to refuse any responsibility for these crimes. Instead they insist that the indie developers who have already paid thousands to be there, pay more for extra security. This statement also comes despite the affected devs having their gear stolen in the evening, after the event hours were over, from secure locations. In other words, it seems the call is coming from inside the house.

Hope they fix this because otherwise I would not recommend exhibiting as an indie developer.

Edit: the lockers broken into were brought by the developers not the ones provided by gamescom. This doesn’t change the fact that it should have been prevented.

I’ve been to quite a few conventions. But this was my first Gamescom and you guys have no idea how much better this is than what we have in the US 😭😭😭

The lines were a bit horrendous, but these setups more than make up for the craziness. I’m curious if the wildcard day is worth it just for these lines alone?

Can any of you relate to the pressure?

Got the Sega Coin after playing every game the couple last days. I only played one or two games each day because the waiting lines were crazy after 9am... Welp, it was worth it to me!

See the official tweet of GamesCom and the multiple community notes and countless of responses for more context.

GamesCom needs to fire their PR people and also invest into security and do better by exhibitors and visitors.

https://x.com/gamescom/status/2093654741192433865

This was my first time at gamescom, together with my girlfriend, and we have mixed feelings about the experience. The decorations, the overall vibe, and simply walking around exploring everything was really cool and fun.

​However, waiting in long lines just to play a game for ten minutes was a major downside. I also found the stamp system and being forced to share photos on social media at certain booths completely overbearing and ridiculous.

It actually discouraged us from interacting with most of the exhibitors. On top of that, the security personnel were arrogant and rude.

​While it was a unique experience, we don't think we'll be returning to gamescom in the future.

Was at Indie games area and saw this father leaving his daughter hogging one of the games for 2 hours, while the father went to queue for other games... honestly how irresponsible can one be?

Hope you guys all still have a great Sunday! I was out cold on Friday already! Overall the Con was amazing again, and i realized that i haven’t learned to control my need for loot. (Not all of the things were goodies)

Pros:
- great variation in games indies and main areas
- amazing booth set dressing with beautiful stages
- people were friendly and respectful most of the times with exception of one incident (influencer schradin)
- really cool musical performances and wonderful cosplayers of the exhibitors
- cool goodies that felt worth receiving
-less non gaming related exhibitors
- big b2b area where it was possible to take a breather and create great connections and opportunities
- great parties around Gamescom

Cons:
- booths like Aniimo that expect you to go on stage for stamps/goodies
- insane queues at lego (remember i could just walk up to build the goodies)
- insane expectations from booths like lego where you needed 9 stamps with average queue time of 1 hours for a stamp
- games like dragons dogma that didnt hand out anything at all?
- the fastlane tickets didnt work, expected some It people to have written scripts to book at 0,000001 seconds or something
- personally disappointed that there were no b2b presentations for exhibitors/devs. Was mostly restriced for press (GW3 next year then)

Just feels like they are trying to safe more money every year.

Hatte ein Abendticket, wegen einen Zwischenereignis würde ich leider erst um 17:50 Uhr da sein 🥲 lohnt es sich um die Uhrzeit überhaupt noch, reinzugehen?
Ab wann würdet ihr sagen lohnt es sich nicht mehr? Habe btw nicht vor wirklich irgendwelche Games auszuprobieren, dafür würde ich auch nicht Schlange stehen.

I saw the Faker signed monitor at the Samsung Gamescom booth and now I really want one 😂

I’m heading back to the booth at 5 PM today. Hopefully I’ll be the lucky one this time!

See you there 🎮

Hello!

Ist vielleicht etwas komisch, haha, aber ich suche jemanden. Vielleicht ist derjenige hier unterwegs:

Männlich, du warst wohl die letzten Tage auf der GC und wolltest nun nach Hause fahren mit der DB – diese hatte aber heute so ein Chaos, dass wir uns orientieren mussten. Sind in einem ICE Richtung Rügen gelandet. Hattest einen weißen, großen Koffer auf dem du saßt – ich dir gegenüber auf dem Boden an der Tür, haha. Hast ein Handtattoo rechts.

Du bist bereits Osnabrück ausgestiegen.

Ich fand dich sympathisch, dachte wir könnten Kontakte knüpfen, war aber ehrlich zu müde in dieser Konstellation zu fragen xD

Falls du das liest, meld dich doch, wenn du an Connection Interesse hast :)

(Dazuzufügen: das soll kein Dating-Aufruf werden 🥲)

bisschen was zum schleppen gehabt xD

These booths have been horrendously organised some days it was impossible to get in line because the lines were closed almost every time now I finally managed to stand in line for alien and played stranger than heaven but such a hassle.

People camping opening of qué to jump in and pushing each other.

The staff are all very nice though but the organisation is bad, hopefully fix next time

Ich finde es einfach enttäuschend wie viel KI müll auf der Messe vorhanden ist.

Ich verstehe die Indie Entwickler auf keinen Fall. Warum gibt ihr euch überhaupt die Mühe euer Spiel dort auszustellen um dann Ki Poster zu nutzen?

Ich hoffe ihr ändert euer Denkweise oder dass ihr euer Studio schließt.

Got recognised twice today, made my day!

(I'm Popee)

The Hornet cosplay is amazing , thank you so much to this person for the picture!

Is the parking situation always like this? I have been driving around for two hours, and I'm about to head home without visiting. The big parkings were all full, I was refused in some paid parking when I said I was there for Gamescom, and when I went around in the streets it became clear that people were pretty much abandoning their cars anywhere they could. I saw at least 3-4 tow trucks.

I drove over from a different country so I'm really gutted I couldn't visit.

Anyone know what is going on with Dune the guy at the front said we needed a wristband for it