My First Time At Gamescom, What It Was Like To Attend In 2022

I didn’t really know what to expect when attending Gamescom 2022 - my first time at the huge Cologne event. Of course, I’d seen videos and streams from previous years and heard stories from my colleagues at GAMINGbible, but the main thing that shocked me was the sheer size of the event. For a few days at the end of August, over a quarter of a million people from across the world converged at the German city’s Koelnmesse, one of the largest exhibition centres in Europe. All of whom share one major thing in common: a love for video games!

As well as sampling some of the local cuisine (comically large sausages and probably too many Kölsch beers), seeing the beautiful gothic cathedral and whizzing around the city on a Lime scooter, I also got to preview and play some unreleased games. Very cool, right? 

Before that though, I attended Opening Night Live, a two-hour show featuring brand-new gameplay trailers and announcements. It was cool seeing Dead Island 2 again after its first trailer was released during E2 2014. Being in a large crowd is way more fun than just watching in my room, alone on Twitch! Over the next few days I spoke with numerous developers, publishers and acquaintances - walking over 20,000 steps every day. Even though the Koelnmesse is overwhelmingly vast at first, it’s extremely easy to get around, with useful signs everywhere.

Although a lot of my time was spent in the business area of Gamescom, the public halls look way, way cooler. There are countless halls full of sensory overload, full to the brim with gaming merch, stage shows, massive statues and areas for members of the public to get their hands on upcoming titles. Games like Sonic Frontiers, Goat Simulator 3 and One Piece Odyssey can be played by attendees way before gameplay has even fully been shown online. TikTok hosted their own Street Fighter 6 tournament, there was a Pokémon x Mini concept car on show, an overbearing LEGO Bowser, retro and indie games areas, cosplay competitions and much more! I caught several people just staring at the massive One Piece statue in awe. The days flew by. I even had a game of head-tennis inbetween some appointments. 

I particularly enjoyed asking the public some fun gaming questions for our social media channels. Everyone was lovely and seemed up for having a great time. They all seemed really happy to be there and mostly all were up for answering one of my silly questions. Gamescom is a fun time for all. 

Some of my favourite games that I saw include: Minecraft Legends, Metal: Hellsinger, Inkulinati, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - Chapter 2 Retribution and Deceive Inc. Other GAMINGbible team members have produced superb pieces on Age of Darkness, where 70,000 units can be on screen at one time, Anger Foot, Planet of Lana and The Callisto Protocol, among many others.

Gamescom 2022 was a fantastic experience and one I feel very grateful to have attended. After several days of getting very little sleep however, it took me an entire weekend to recover. Actually, I’m still not sure I’ve fully recovered two weeks later.