Notes from the Gamescom Floor

Every year, I count myself blessed that I get to attend the massive, epic game industry show that is Gamescom in Cologne. Not only is Cologne my favorite city in Germany, but the show is a unique opportunity to meet up with ModSquad’s awesome EU clients, as well as many of our American and Asian ones. And it’s great to meet new folks from game industry companies from around the world.

It’s always fascinating to me to see how Gamescom combines the business side of a show like E3 with the player energy of a show like PAX. While I have mostly attended Gamescom in the past on my own, this year ModSquad was represented by both myself and Clive Jefferies, our VP, Sales for the EU. Having a partner for a massive show like Gamescom was a different experience, and a much less hectic one!

As always, the show was a learning experience. Esports continues to be a growing trend, with more and more games being designed specifically for that burgeoning market. When you see a game like Rocket League get so popular, especially coming from an indie house, you can bet that a lot of game developers are going to follow suit, and it showed at Gamescom.

It was also interesting to speak with folks from established game companies with strong PC niche games; many of them are making major efforts to branch out into the mobile space with games and/or apps geared toward their already loyal core audiences. The mobile space in general, of course, is still as hectic as it’s been for the past few years.

Gamescom itself seems to be adapting to the huge crush of weekend crowds by spacing out the show floor access to earlier days in the week, which I’m sure made the fans happy. Certainly, the show just seems to be getting bigger and bigger, which is great news for the players.

Thanks to shows like Gamescom, ModSquad is also getting bigger and bigger, and I look forward to being in Cologne for Gamescom, Kolsch Beer, and Haxen for many years to come.

Rich Weil
Senior VP, Global Operations