Events: Gamescom 2025
My time at Europe's (the world's?) biggest gaming conference event
Eeek this year I decided to go to Gamescom in Köln. It seemed like a sort of logical next step in terms of gaming events, however I had no idea how big it actually is, so maybe I should have tried to stay more local first. This is a bit of an overview blog, and I will go into details for the indie games I played or liked the look of in a separate post in more detail. :)
What is Gamescom?
Gamescom is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming event, with 370,000 visitors and 1,037 exhibitors from 56 countries attending the event in 2018.1
In 2025 it looks to be even bigger.
With over 1,500 exhibitors from 72 countries, gamescom 2025 achieves a new record and thus offers the greatest diversity in its history. The gross area has grown in comparison to the previous year by 3,000 square meters to a total of 233,000 square meters, thus also marking a new record high. 2
The plan was to go to the Wednesday afternoon, and then also go all of Thursday. The following two days, we wanted to relax and enjoy Köln…. but we ended up also going on Saturday after some tickets became free. :)
Wednesday 20th August
We live near 2 London airports and luckily Heathrow was one of the ones that had flights directly to Cologne airport. We travelled in the morning, and as the conference was on the way into the city centre, we decided to stop off there and use our wildcard tickets straight away.
We did have to queue a bit to get in and this was probably the first time in 5 years that I experienced a huge crowd which was a bit overwhelming. But in general everyone was well behaved and just a little excited. I didn’t get squished like at a concert.
Nintendo
Once we were in we decided to do the big halls first, which contained Nintendo and the other had Xbox as a big draw. I had read that Wednesday afternoon was likely to be the quietest so queuing on this day would be most efficient. Queues were still long, especially for Silksong and Resident Evil.
We did get in to play Pokemon Z-A and it really surprised me. I thought I would dislike it, but the real time fighting was really fun and I might now be in the market for this new Pokemon game. Nintendo actually had 2 demos for this game. I only played the introduction.
We then went to play Elden Ring, as I kind of want it on a handheld. While I could get it for the steam deck, my Nintendo Switch 2 is currently still the new shiny thing, so I decided to play it. There was no-one at the stand. Everyone was at Silksong. But I also don’t blame them. The game played shockingly bad. I even felt like there was input lag. So if there is another steam sale in the future I may get it for the steam deck instead.
Rog Xbox Ally X
Next I found an empty Rog Xbox Ally X stand and played with the device. It felt big and heavy but the grips are really nice. I didn't have my steam deck with me to compare, but there was something chunky about it, which I don’t mind. I just wish they would have put an 8-8.5inch screen on it. I would be seriously considering it. But as it stands I can’t justify the investment, but it was nice to hold and have a play with. We played a racing game of sorts which I can’t remember the name of now.
Other
One thing we also did was just wander around in awe. I don’t think I have been at such an event with elaborate stands and lighting and screens. The Netflix areas and Lego were really fun to walk through. But everyone did an awesome job to brand their corner and make it a feast for the eyes and ears.
There was even an interactive booth for Alien Earth. While we liked the series so far and are huge Alien fans this was not worth queuing the hour and a bit for. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but we did still have fun.
I also wanted to check out the merchandise situation and while I liked the fact there was an artist alley with original art inspired by games and comics, I was disappointed at the lack of proper branded merch, especially apparel. I was convinced I would need a suitcase (we traveled hand luggage only), but I ended up only buying 2 cult of the lamb t-shirts. :) The other stuff there seemed to be cheap ripoffs and a lot of huge oversized cuddly toys. Not really my thing.
We tried to go through most halls and areas on day 1, but left the indie and retro area for day 2, as I expected those to be less busy especially in terms of wait times to play something.
Thursday 21st August
Now I thought Wednesday was busy. It was certainly one of the biggest crowds I have been in, in a long time. Well meet Thursday. It was incredibly busy and overwhelming. While we could walk reasonably freely inside of the halls on Wednesday, this was not the case on Thursday. During busier times, the flow of traffic was also directed, so sometimes you had to do a loop outside to get to a different hall. But while it was busier it was also more atmospheric. It felt like Wednesday was the dress rhearsal and then the party started properly on Thursday.
Silksong
I decided to try my luck and went to a smaller Silksong queue. There seemed to be 3 places to play it; at the Nintendo stand (they added free fast passes from Friday to manage the amount of people), Xbox stand with a controller and a TV and then the Rog Ally Xbox stand. The latter was less obvious, so I joined that queue and played the game within 30 mins.
Funny side note. I had been playing so much switch 2 that I exited out of the game and they had to restart the device for me. I kind of got 8 mins instead of 10 with the game but it was very fun and I can’t wait to learn all about Hornet’s move set.
Bloomwalker
While at the XBOX area, I noticed a game that looked very Studio Ghibli inspired called Bloomwalker. It had a short queue so I played it for a bit. It felt really wholesome and sweet. It had some crafting elements and the art and colours were lovely. I am going to keep an eye on this.
I wanted to check out some others but was put off by the fact they were essentially booth with trailers on. So we decided to walk around and discovered a whole section of the event we had not seen yet.
I have fallen in love with Thermaltake cases and cooling systems. Not that I need any but they looked incredible.
Indies
Around lunchtime we headed to the indie are. It was busy and electrifying. The buzz around this area with devs and games from all over the world was incredible. I felt a bit emotional. I think indie games are works of art and so personal to the people (or sometimes person) creating them. A lot of devs were looking for funding or publishers and I wish them well. While the industry is not doing well it is certainly breeding creativity. A lot of teams I spoke to existed due to redundancies and they seemed to be invigorated to finally be creating the sort of game they liked.
I will do a separate post on the specific games I looked at and enjoyed, because I feel like these need calling out specifically. But it was certainly awesome how much space this indie area took up and how many people were there excited to play something really new to them from around the world. I even ran into a couple of developers who I spoke to at the indie event in Brighton.
Ice cream
It was quite warm on Wednesday and Thursday and while it was easy to get chips and other food, they really missed a trick with not having ice cream stands. I had a proper hunt for some and eventually found a tiny hidden corner shop which only accepted cash. Luckily I had some. But do bring some cash just in case!
Other
Thursday was really inspiring. We saw such a mix of games and hardware, that we started creating our own projects and almost wanting to go home to start them. I am not talking games, but gaming set ups and other ideas.
2 things I found fascinating were these racing and flight sim rigs which actually moved as your car or plane moved, and the VR gaming arena. It was fascinating to see people play a shooting game against each other without falling over or into each other.
There was also a remote control car drifting completion going on and I have never seen anything like it.
Thursday was also the Silksong announcement. It is now less than 2 weeks away. I am contemplating taking the Friday after its release off. :D (I probably won’t).
Friday 22nd August
Friday was a day off for us. We had a lovely breakfast, then climbed the Cathedral, and walked around the chocolate museum.
We tried to have many little breaks for coffee and cake, to let our feet and legs recover a bit, as I had heard that some tickets became available for Saturday and we were going too decide in the morning if we would go back.
We found a nice Italian restaurant to finish the day and also ate some ice cream. Yumm!
Saturday 23rd August
We slept in abit and chose a different place for breakfast. Then as we made a plan to maybe go to the zoo or the botanical gardens, we decided to just buy another set of tickets and go. This might sound extravagant but we were there for this event and I am not sure of we would go again any time soon.
Although I would love to do a bigger meet up with people that I have met online in the gaming world. So that could convince me more than a new game.
Saturday was spent looking at more indie games. There are even a couple I kept my eyes out for and never found. That is how big and bustling the event was.
I am going to collate these in the next post. If you are thinking of going to gamescom, I can say that my experience was great. It was well organised, there was lots other eat and drink, and so much to explore.
Tips:
take water with you
take a foldable chair if you want to queue for the next big thing
wear comfy shoes
turn up around 30-40 mins after doors open for a less stressful entry experience
Do go for wildcard Wednesday and have a more chilled experience at the bigger stands
try something new
speak to all the indie devs
Things I didn’t enjoy, the fomo of goodie hunting. Once I let go this was easier to deal with but I wanted to make sure I make the most of the event but this looks different to everyone. Lack of ice cream. :D Lack of official apparel for the brands I cared about.
This was a great experience and I can recommend it, but just know it is BIG. Making a rough plan does help.
Have you been to gamescom? What did you think? Do you have other favourite events that you go to?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamescom
https://www.gamescom.global/en/more-diverse-than-ever-gamescom-2025-with-more-than-1500-exhibitors
So I feel like a complete fool and don't think I've ever heard of Gamescom before, and I've been around a long time! Why am I suddenly just hearing about it this year? It looks very cool. I was imagining it as a sort of European E3, but it looks like it's more open to the public, is that right? I need to know more.
I liked your photos, particularly the ones where the games looked like they were fixed into the shape of an arcade cabinet, that looked like a nice touch. Thanks for writing about this.
Oh the Rog Ally X looks so cool. I use the xbox controller for daily play on PC so I like that its essentially a xbox controller handheld. The indie section looked so good with many many cool upcoming games.
I really want to do a irl meeting with all us substackers/gamers. I am definitely going next year and am so down to plan a meet up! Great post as always!