PlayStation is the latest in a number of big names in the gaming industry to confirm that they’re passing on this year’s Gamescom. The event, which is arguably the largest global annual games conference in existence, is returning to a physical format this year. This comes after two years of the COVID-19 landscape effectively canceling in-person events, with many being replaced by digital showcases instead.
The event is scheduled to take place in Germany between August 24 and 28, but it doesn’t seem to all be going that smoothly in terms of landing the big-name publishers to appear. According to a report by VGC, PlayStation has today confirmed to the German publication Games Wirtschaft that they would not be in attendance at this year’s Gamescom event. They’re joining the likes of Nintendo, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard, who have also decided to opt-out of the physical event.
There’s no doubt that the last couple of years has changed the landscape of gaming events. Thanks to the pandemic, big conferences such as E3 and other events were canceled in favor of moving to a digital format. Perhaps this is a change that won’t be so easily reversed, and there are questions about whether it should be, given the ease of access and positive feedback regarding digital showcases.
Apparently, there are only a few publishers that have currently confirmed their attendance at the Gamescom event this year, such as Bandai Namco, THQ Nordic, and Koch Media. As far as Microsoft goes, there’s no news yet as to whether or not they’re planning to make an appearance, but it seems unlikely given that they’ve just showcased so many of their upcoming titles during this month’s Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.
June has provided a lot of showcase events and also Sony shared up a lot during this month’s State of Play. It might be that there’s not much else for the big publishers to share in the next couple of months. Whatever the reason, we’ll just have to wait and see which other publishers take part in Gamescom and which decide to follow in PlayStation’s footsteps by politely bowing out.
