Gamescom 2020 goes digital as Germany extends ban on major public events

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In a move that will come as no surprise to most of us, Gamescom 2020 will be held digitally as the physical event will not be taking place anymore. The reason is that Germany has extended its ban on all major public events until the end of August, which will affect the planning and preparation for Gamescom 2020 as it was due to take place at the end of August. The announcement comes from the official Gamescom Twitter page which reads:

“Even though not all details are known at present, the nationwide ban on major events until the end of August will also affect the planning for #gamescom2020. Furthermore: gamescom 2020 will definitely take place digitally! We will provide further information shortly.”

Originally, the ban on major events in Germany was only supposed to last up until April 10th, but due to the severity of the situation around the globe, have decided to extend that date further. The organizers of Gamescom 2020 came out to say that the event will not be postponed or even cancelled, and would go ahead despite the current pandemic.

The big gaming convention attracts a large number of people each year, so with the coronavirus pandemic going on at the moment, it’s understandable for the event to transition to a digital strategy, much like how Ubisoft and Microsoft will be doing the same thing this year after E3 2020’s cancellation.

It is unclear what this digital strategy is currently, and whether or not it’s similar to Gamescom’s Opening Night Live which attracted a very large audience online last year. Koelnmesse, one of the organizers of Gamescom, recently said that Opening Night Live “will be significantly expanded and new modules added.”

“Gamescom and Koelnmesse already rank among the digital pioneers in the international trade fair landscape,” said Oliver Frese, managing director at Koelnmesse. “We therefore also see the current corona crisis as a chance to implement digital event formats even more. Gamescom 2020 offers the perfect platform for this.”

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