Gamescom 2010 : General Discussion

[patsu]

Yap, 70,000 in 2005, peaked.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sure, Gamescom is a significant platform nonetheless, relative to other events in the industry. E3 (300 exhibitors), PAX (61,000) and Comic Con (140,000+) are all smaller than the two year old (?) Gamescom.

GamesCom was bigger than TGS even when it was The Leipzig Games Convention. Which isn't that surprising. Europe offers a larger population than Japan and a higher density than the US, while also being open to the public. Yet surprisingly it's the least noteworthy convention for big reveals, no doubt because it's sandwiched between the other two. All big announcements need to happen at E3 where the media is, and those later announcements have more time if they wait for TGS.

Then again, saving big announcements for GamesCom means far less media competition that at E3, where a message may get lost. Where an announcement happen is irrelevant these days thanks to the internet, just so long as the media are there to cover it.

 

[Arwin]

Well E3 got massively shrunk down a few years back.

It did, but these last two years it's been back to normal pretty much.

Gamescom's numbers are impressive nevertheless. As far as I know, it's the biggest games related convention in the world right now, with TGS at 180.000 ...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Sure, Gamescom is a significant platform nonetheless, relative to other events in the industry. E3 (300 exhibitors), PAX (61,000) and Comic Con (140,000+) are all smaller than the two year old (?) Gamescom.

It's interesting that you mention PAX. As interest in that both among gamers and publishers/developers has grown rapidly the past few years. Enough that they have opened a second venue (PAX East) to make it more accessible to people on the East coast. As well not only is PAX at capacity, but PAX East also opened at capacity. So number of attendee's are deliberately being limited by the convention centers in which they are held.

Once upon a time you could just show up without a reservation, but those days are gone. It's basically, make a reservation in advance or forget about attending.

However, that said. PAX encompasses far more than just computer/console gaming. It's also got a large PnP and Tabletop gaming presence as well as other things. And part of the attraction for people is that all proceeds go to a charity (Childsplay, hope I got the name right. ).

Regards,
SB

 

[patsu]

PAX 2008 topped 59000 visitors.
PAX 2009 attracted about 61000 guests
PAX (East) 2010 had about 50000+ guests

Physical events are harder to manage and expand.

 

[upnorthsox]

PAX 2008 topped 59000 visitors.
PAX 2009 attracted about 61000 guests
PAX (East) 2010 had about 50000+ guests

Physical events are harder to manage and expand.

Sure, at some point your venue is going to dictate how large it can be.

 

[patsu]

Sure, at some point your venue is going to dictate how large it can be.

Yap, worse than that. e.g., I skipped ChinaJoy the other day because I heard the line was more than an hour long, the traffic was bad, and it was 90+ F outside for the entire period. It was a little tight for my schedule also.

 

[eastmen]

Yap, worse than that. e.g., I skipped ChinaJoy the other day because I heard the line was more than an hour long, the traffic was bad, and it was 90+ F outside for the entire period. It was a little tight for my schedule also.

There was some talk as I understand it to move PAX east to NYC in 2 years when the javits center is finished being upgraded. it should have room to grow to over 200k people if the need be with the new javits center.

 

[patsu]

About that expo...

I can't help but LOL when I saw this article. It's OT but I could relate so very well with the article in my last trip:
http://gizmodo.com/5621018/how-to-survive-the-shanghai-expo