Tag Archives: leipziger messe

Gamescom’s organiser has said the current number of registered exhibitors for this year’s show is up 20 percent on the same point last year. Plus, the trade and consumer event will welcome Mexican exhibitors with a new country-specific pavilion.

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Leipziger Messe’s just confirmed that Games Convention is officially dead. The 2009 event, originally planned for August 20-23, has been cancelled.

The news ends Games Convention as was, one of the largest games shows in the world. Launched in 2002, the fair was an epic event, and by far the most important annual show in Europe.

The central European games show for 2009 will, instead, be the inaugural gamescom in Cologne on August 19-23.

“If the industry is again in search of a platform for console and PC games and hardware with the know-how of the GC – Games Convention, we will immediately be available,” said Leipziger Messe boss, Wolfgang Marzin.

The fight between GC and gamescom has been a bitter one, but there was never any real doubt the latter would become the major games show in Germany after the BIU – Germany’s ELSPA, ESA, etc – announced the formation of the show last year.

Gamescom capitalised on the Leipzig announcement today by issuing a press release saying it “enjoys more support from industry”.

Ubisoft Germany GM Ralf Wirsing had this to say: “In Cologne we will have the opportunity to both present our range of products to an international market and to familiarise ourselves with the new products of the other national and international market participants.

“If you look at the numbers of registered gamers in the online and browser markets, the growing importance of this segment is unmistakable.”

We admit it: we have a tear in the eye. So long, Leipzig. You were a good friend.

Both press releases after the break.

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According to this Gamekyo piece, Game Convention owner Leipziger Messe said this morning that the show’s promised North American version may be held in Canada as opposed to the US.

“We’ll decide about the place of the new event in cooperation with the games industry,” said a rep.

“It seems to become a city in Canada, not in the US. We’ll inform you as soon as we arrived at a decision… We are still in negotiation.”

Lumme. More through the link.

According to this GI story, Frank Sliwka, the organiser of GCDC and GCAC, is to leave Leipziger Messe for Global Games Media, a marketing and communication company.

“I spent wonderful years with Leipziger Messe,” he said. “However, I’m now looking forward to starting from October onwards a new challenge as the CEO of Global Games Media Ltd.”

The move comes as Games Conventions fortunes look certain to change in the face of next year’s gamescom in Cologne.

Sliwka was a well known figure of the Games Convention “scene,” and is a thoroughly nice chap. Good luck, Frank.

This isn’t going to get any simpler, is it? Speaking to MCV, Games Convention boss Wolfgang Marzin has trashed 2009 Cologne show gamescom as a “ridiculous” idea.

“We know the truth,” he told MCV. “We’ve already proved that GC works, and we have trade backing – nobody wants a show in September. Another copy of GC in Germany is ridiculous; what is the benefit of holding another show? I am confident that the big show will be GC next year.”

Others, such as Koch MD and BIU member Klemens Kundratitz are less convinced, however.

“There will not be another show of any relevance in Germany,” he said, referring to any other effort next year outside of gamescom. “[Leipzig] might try something, but the top 12 publishers are in the BIU and we are committed to take the show to the next level in Cologne.

“The facts are that we have had a great time for seven years at Leipzig Games Convention, but it is now at the stage where it requires a new environment.”

And on it rages.

We already have proof positive that Leipzig is to remain GC’s central base of operations, but the super-sized convention may soon be expanding its empire onto North American shores.

“The concept is flexible and the network of the global games industry permits us to be active at different locations. After the Southeast Asian Games Convention, we are now focusing on the North American market,” said Leipziger Messe boss Wolfgang Marzin.

The news comes after a highly successful GC08, and confirmation that next year’s show will indeed take place, despite the BIU putting on GamesCOM in Cologne for the first time in 2009.

The full press release, mostly elaborating on the boasts in the aforelinked post, is after the break.

By Nathan Grayson

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According to the official GC site, Leipziger Messe has officially dated Games Convention 2009, which is to run from August 19-23, 2009.

To say this “puts the cat among the pigeons” is a bit of an understatement. The BIU – the German equivalent of ESA or ELSPA – has announced GamesCOM for 2009, a Cologne event that clearly supposed to replaced Games Convention as the major German – and European – games show.

While better travel connections and more hotel rooms are obviously on offer in Cologne, you’d have to be a bit mental to call this year’s Games Convention anything other than a success. Facts and figures:

• Exhibitors: 547 (2007: 503)
• Space occupied: 115,000 sqm (2007: 112,500 sqm)
• Visitors: 203,000 (2007: 185,00)
• Trade visitors: 14,600 (2007: 12,300)
• Media representatives: 3,800 journalists from 48 countries (2007: 3,395 from 46 countries)

Let’s hope someone with an agenda doesn’t go confusing everything for no real reason, eh?

According to this EG.de post, Leipziger Messe’s confirmed that 81,000 people visited Games Convention yesterday, more than 11,000 visitors up on the same day in the previous year.

Since Wednesday – the press day – more than 170,500 people have visited the show, and with today still to go it looks as though GC08 will easily clear the 200,000 attendees last year’s event saw through its doors.

More through the link, auf Deutsch.

According to this MCV story, Leipziger Messe’s announced direct flights from Luton to Leipzig for Games Convention this year, for the bargain price of €250.

Charter flights of Windrose Air Jetcharter leave on Tuesday evening (August 19th) at 6.00pm BST and Thursday morning (August 21st) at 6.00am BST from Luton Airport. It’s a two-hour flight.

The return flights are on Wednesday (August 20th) or Friday (August 22nd), at 7.30pm.

More through the link.

Leipziger Messe just put out a press release spelling out in 40-foot high letters than Games Convention will still take place in Leipzig in 2009.

From the missive:

In response to individual reports in the media in recent months claiming that the GC – Games Convention 2009 would be held elsewhere, the Leipziger Messe boss Wolfgang Marzin clarifies: “The GC – Games Convention is not moving”. Marzin emphasises that the Games Convention is still available to the national and international industry. As the organisers of the GC – Games Convention, the Leipziger Messe would continue to pursue its international strategy. The strength of the world-famous and positively perceived “GC – Games Convention” brand must be exploited to continue expansion of the globally structured concept. An important element in this regard was the Games Convention Asia (GCA) which has been held annually in Singapore since 2007, as Wolfgang Marzin reports.

Got that? IT ISN’T MOVING. It’s just that the show officially sanctioned by the BIU, GAMESCom, will be held in Cologne in September next year. Well handled there, German people.

Full thing after the link.

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Breaking news from the Leipzig press conference. Leipziger Messe has just confirmed that Games Convention as we know it is no more, and that the event has been moved to Cologne for 2009. Its new name is GAMESCom.

Update: Eurogamer.de’s just published this. The new show is being moved from August to September. Better travel links and 80,000 hotel places in the Cologne area are being mooted as the main reasons for the move. Both the German TV station RTL and the 2009 World Cyber Games are based in Cologne. The organisers have said the new show will work closely with both.

Following heavy speculation that Games Convention was to move to Cologne from Leipzig, German newspaper the FAZ has reported that the move is in fact correct, and that the new name for the show is Games Con.

“That report’s not official,” said a senior German source. “FAZ seems to know something, the local paper in Leipzig seems to know something. One is saying it’s called Games Con, another is saying it’s called Games Com. I’ve seen reports saying it’s called Games.com. Isn’t Games.com owned by AOL? It’s bullshit. We’ll know for certain what’s going on at the press conference on Monday morning.”

Leipziger Messe has confirmed that a press conference will be held in Leipzig on Monday at 10am CET.

Games Convention as an IP is owned by Leipziger Messe. FAZ had previously reported that the show was to be moved from Leipzig to Cologne for its 2009 show, and would likely have to have its name changed for legal reasons. Another option for the move, said the report, was for the Messe to license the IP to a new events company in Cologne for €450,000 for three years.

We’ll know on Monday, German games show fans.

A senior German industry source has told VG247 that he is “99 percent sure” that today’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) speculation report that 2009′s Games Convention will be held in Cologne is correct.

The story said that Games Convention is to move to Cologne next year, but may undergo a name change. It also said that there is talk of Leipziger Messe, the owner of the Games Convention IP, licensing the property to another firm for €450,000 for three years.

“I’m 99 percent sure it’s true,” said the source. “It’s the only way to make it truly international, because of flight connections, and so on. There’s Cologne airport, Bonn airport and Düsseldorf is next door. Then you have the big boys, EA and Ubisoft, in Cologne and Düsseldorf. It all makes sense.”

He went on, explaining that the FAZ is a highly regarded publication.

“The FAZ is one of the two most respected newspapers in Germany, and those details are pretty specific, to be honest,” he said. “It’s not a rumour newspaper. It’s a paper mainly for the financial community, based in Frankfurt, so I don’t expect them to write something they just heard somewhere.”

Talk of Games Convention moving from Leipzig is years old, mainly due to poor flight connections to the east German town and a lack of hotels close to the Messe. The source continued, saying that rumoured targets of doubling the show’s attendance could never be achieved in Leipzig.

“There have been so many rumours in the past,” he said. “To be fair, the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware [BIU, the German equivalent of ESA or ELSPA - Ed] is in control of it, but no one really mentions it, and EA is in Cologne. They might be the driving force behind it.

“There was talk of a target of an attendance of 400,000 people for Games Convention, and this can only be achieved in [the German state of] Nordrhein-Westfalen. So it can only be in Cologne, Essen, or wherever. It can’t be anywhere else, because that’s the state with the strongest population. They have 19 million people there.”

If the move is a reality, said the source, you’re going to know about it sooner rather than later.

“I don’t think there’s any way to confirm this further,” he said. “No one will comment on it. They’ll have to tell everyone soon if they are going to move it for 2009. It’s the biggest games show in the world, and it’s already February 2008.”

Rumour is now circulating that next week’s GDC may see an announcement regarding the location of next year’s show. This year’s Games Convention will be held as usual in Leipzig, running from August 20-24.