Gamescom 2021 Will Be An All-Digital Event | TechPowerUp
 
The German Games Industry Association have decided to hold gamescom 2021 as an all-digital event. This decision was made after extensive discussions with partners and exhibitors. Thus, the organizers take into account the current situation, in which too many companies are unable to participate in physical events this year due to the still difficult development. In this way, they also meet the partners' strong need for planning security. This means that gamescom 2021 will be held exclusively digitally and free of charge for all gamescom fans. In 2020, gamescom celebrated numerous successes: Over 100 million video views across all formats and channels, more than 50 million unique users from 180 countries, and 370 partners from 44 countries. Building on this success, the digital offering is now being expanded further.
 
With gamescom 2021, Koelnmesse and game - The German Games Industry Association want to build directly on the success of last year's online event. gamescom will once again be kicked off by the spectacular gamescom: Opening Night Live with Geoff Keighley. The gamescom now content hub is being completely relaunched in a more attractive design with numerous additional features for fans and partners. Also new is gamescom epix, a community campaign that allows fans to playfully immerse themselves in the gamescom universe on the road to gamescom. Starting with gamescom: Opening Night Live on Wednesday evening (August 25) to Friday evening (August 27), gamescom fans can look forward to a full program, with some of the highlights and promotions also running over the weekend.

devcom, the first go-to source for developers and their ecosystem, will also feature an extensive online program and provide the games industry with a central business platform. Several full-day business matchmaking events, such as the popular "Indies meet Investors and Publishers" format devcom Pitch it! or special matchmaking and pitching events with devcom's international community stands, will be significantly expanded. Another new feature is devcom's clear focus on content and the extensive conference program on the first two days, while Wednesday to Friday will be all about business, networking and devcom's popular digital expo. However, the launch of the new online B2B platform gamescom biz will be postponed by one year because its features can only be fully rolled out in a hybrid concept. The gamescom congress, Europe's leading conference on the social, economic and cultural potential of games, will once again take place only digitally on Thursday, August 26, 2021.

In the slightly adjusted schedule for digital gamescom 2021, gamescom week will start with devcom as usual on Monday, August 23. gamescom: Opening Night Live will take place on Wednesday, August 25, with the main days of gamescom on Thursday and Friday, August 26 and 27. Some of the offers will continue to be available over the following weekend.
 
The pandemic is still an issue for 2021 so I don't expect any large grouping events for the rest of the year. 

Online Cons are just not the same.

Zerhot
Online cons are not the same :(

Sure but now I guess the choice is between no con or online, and then the choice is easy tbh.

Online conventions are better than no conventions at all.

One good thing is and you gotta admit.. is you wont get to deal with the BO from people. Rude to say yes but I've heard people who complain about Cons cause of that, like how someone was actually passing out deodorant near the entrance apparently

Neoma
One good thing is and you gotta admit.. is you wont get to deal with the BO from people. Rude to say yes but I've heard people who complain about Cons cause of that, like how someone was actually passing out deodorant near the entrance apparently

Lol

Hoggle
For me it’s about the press and the feelings they get from playing a demo. Sometimes a PR piece can make a game look awesome but the second you start playing it you realize the game just isn’t as fun as it can sound.

Yeah same, this would be nice and certainly feesible (look at NASA and their live broadcasting of missions). Or at the very least they should still have a commentary panel to act as the 'glue' between the different livestreams.

Hoggle
It would be nice if they at least would have media come out and demo some games under a NDA that is lifted after the announcement at the online convention. I am sure that Microsoft or Sony could invite 24 members of the press at a time into a room let them play the game then sanitize and have 24 more come in and do that like four or five times. Basically that would give the best option I feel.

For me it’s about the press and the feelings they get from playing a demo. Sometimes a PR piece can make a game look awesome but the second you start playing it you realize the game just isn’t as fun as it can sound.

Tbh I really like what Steam does with its game festivals. They have a livestream running with the games and the devs, most upcoming games partecipating have also demos available to try.
It'd be nice to have a similar system with conventions where you get to try some of those games through digital stores.

I have a feeling many shows will be virtual from now on even after things get back to normal.

Atleast they are doing it