For many years, Gamescom was quietly known within the industry as “that other event” – a reference to the utter dominance E3 once enjoyed in the collective consciousness. Taking place in Cologne, it’s a very different beast to its American counterpart, aimed much more at the public (as Keza reports here), and focusing on hands-on demos, rather than endless press conferences. The proof of that could be found in its opening night livestream on Tuesday, a sprawling jamboree of trailers and gameplay clips produced and presented by Geoff Keighley, a one-time journalist, Game Awards organiser and now apparently the only person allowed to make global game events.
What the night showed is that Gamescom is not quite as slickly stage managed as E3. Keighley was interrupted by stage invaders who demanded the release of GTA 6, and there were awkward segments including an interview with cosplayers. Then Zack Snyder was given several minutes to promote his forthcoming movie Rebel Moon, which, to be fair, did look more like a video game than a lot of actual video games. And even though plenty of women were on stage, the night had an arch-dudebros-of-the-industry feel, with Todd Howard, Ed Boon, Troy Baker and Phil Spencer popping up, each one seemingly determined to use the exclamation “insane!” more than any previous guest.
