Games!
The exciting summertime events in the gaming industry aren’t over quite yet. Gamescom's 2021 event will be held entirely online, for a second successive year, and it’s free for anyone to watch and enjoy!
Gamescom is a time to celebrate and learn about what’s going on in the global gaming industry. There’s a lot to be excited about between the various events and the partners coming to the event. So if you’re interested in checking out the show, we’ve highlighted the key points to look out for or expect when it all kicks off.
Dates, Time And Schedule
Gamescom has already released a timeline for the various conferences taking place each day.
The Opening Night Live show will start on August 25. The following two days, August 26 and 27, will hold the rest of Gamescom’s events, including the Awesome Indies conference.
However, that’s not all. Gamescom also has events that are specific to developers, and these will start on August 23.
If you have any interest in developing games, then the week of August 23 will be worth paying attention to from the start. If you’re more interested in what’s going on from a consumer’s perspective, then your fun starts on August 25, with Opening Night Live.
Gamescom has put all of this information on a straightforward graphic to make it easy to see what’s going on and when.
GamesRadar’s Future Games Show will also be taking place on August 26, and an Xbox stream will go live on August 24.
To summarize, so far we know of the following show dates:
- Tuesday, August 24 - Xbox stream
- Wednesday, August 25 - Gamescom: Opening Night Live
- Thursday, August 26 (1PM, PT) - Future Games Show
Partner List
Gamescom’s partners for 2021 are pretty exciting. These are some of the biggest studios that will have news and information at the event:
- Activision Blizzard
- Bandai Namco
- Bethesda
- Daedalic Entertainment
- EA
- Humble Games
- Konami
- miHoYo
- Sega
- Ubisoft
- Xbox
There are also dozens of indie studios in attendance as well, and even more major developers, too. With names like these, there should be a game talked about for pretty much every genre that exists. Be on the lookout for major release information, especially from studios like Bethesda which have highly anticipated games in the works.
System Changes
One of the major things that fans should expect to see at Gamescom 2021 is gameplay. With titles like Far Cry 6, Elden Ring, Starfield, and Halo Infinite on the horizon, there’s no doubt that studios are going to show at least a few of them in action.
There’s also potential to see information on new updates coming to some of the more popular free-to-play games on the market, like EA’s Apex Legends. MiHoYo will also be in attendance, which more than likely means more news on Genshin Impact.
Konami’s attendance has also encouraged fans to pick up the rumors of a Silent Hill reboot once more. These rumors have been going on for years, but there’s always the potential for Konami to actually make Gamescom 2021 the one at which the dreams of Silent Hill stalwarts are finally realized.
Call of Duty fans can get excited as well — Cold War was discussed at Gamescom 2020, and since there’s no news on the next installment in the FPS series, Call of Duty: Vanguard could be on the schedule here. However, developer and publisher Activision Blizzard is going through massive internal and external problems following lawsuits in California. The ongoing situation could affect what’s shown off at Gamescom this time around.
As a reminder, the core of Gamescom 2021 takes place August 25 - 27, starting off with the Opening Night Live broadcast. Prepare your snacks and get ready for those reveals.
Awesome Indies
One highlight of the event is the Awesome Indies conference. Gamescom held the Awesome Indies conference during last year’s online event, and it was one of the quirkiest parts of the entire show.
With more and more indie titles on the horizon, Gamescom 2021 should show off some pretty amazing games. Media website IGN will be directly assisting the show here, and will also help organize Gamescom Studio, which is the main part of the event.
According to the Gamescom website, you can look forward to “exciting reveals, fresh gameplay, interviews, walkthroughs, Q&A and much more” this year. Gamescom Studio and the Awesome Indies conference are the bread and butter of the show, and any in-depth news from the conference will be covered in these two events.
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