Europe's biggest gaming event, Gamescom 2020, will is sticking to schedule late August despite the continent being the epicenter of the biggest outbreak of thee coronavirus pandemic outside China. | Source: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
- Europe’s biggest gaming event, Gamescom 2020, will be going ahead as planned.
- Koelnmesse, which organizes the event, said that visitor safety is its “top priority.”
- Other major gaming events, such as E3 2020 and GDC 2020 in California, have been cancelled.
On Twitter, Gamescom 2020 organizers Koelnmesse have confirmed that it is planning to go ahead with the event. Koelnmesse takes visitor safety “very seriously” and calls it a top priority, but it sees no need to cancel or postpone.
The city of Cologne has banned events with more than 1,000 participants until April 10, 2020. Gamescom 2019 had 373,000 visitors and it was likely to have drawn huge numbers this year.
However, as Gamescom 2020 is at the end of August, long after the major event ban, the event will not be affected. If Gamescom 2020 is cancelled or postponed though, Koelnmesse will give people a refund.
Sticking to Schedule
Not everyone is happy about the decision to keep going with Gamescom 2020 as planned. Many events have been cancelled around the world as a public health issue and some are saying that Koelnmesse should postpone the event five months out to be safe.
Others though are hugely excited about this. Gaming events like E3 2020 have been cancelled and GDC 2020 has been postponed until the end of summer. Gamescom is huge and could offer a huge number of new game announcements and reveals.
It could also potentially be the first time that fans get to play the Xbox Series X and the PS5. Sony is planning a major PS5 reveal and the Xbox team is holding a stream for E3 2020. Gamescom could be one of the first big game events that happens after that, which is why gamers seem to be so excited about it not being cancelled.
