Gamescom continues its mission to build a global brand of international events, and its Asian show is set to take place in Singapore this October.
Between the highly successful inaugural Gamescom Latam earlier this year, the original trade show returning to Cologne in a few weeks, and Gamescom Asia from October 17-20, 2024 will be the first year that all three events are held in full force.
While Gamescom's parent company Koelnmesse only acts as a co-organizer of the Latam edition, it is fully behind Gamescom Asia, with project director Daria La Valle telling us the event wants to be a platform for Southeast Asia “to come together.” The German Games Industry Association is also behind the wheel as the global owner of the Gamescom brand.
La Valle has worked for Koelnmesse Singapore for the past ten years and has lived in the city-state for 15 years. Having started working on Gamescom Asia in 2019, it has experienced a challenging journey leading up to this 2024 edition.
COVID-19 hit the year the event was supposed to debut, with Gamescom Asia then pushed back to 2021.
“It was a rough time, to be honest,” La Valle laughs when asked what it was like to experience this behind the scenes. “I remember in February 2020, when COVID hit, we had already sold half of the exhibition space, we had several publishers on board, it was looking really promising, still eight months until the October 2020 show.
“Then we all know what happened: the pandemic hit. We had to hit the brakes hard and, like many other event organizers, we decided to shoot online. Of course, we had the advantage of being in Singapore because the internet infrastructure here is really good.” But at the same time, we didn't want our very first Gamescom Asia to be online only.”
Koelnmesse also put together a series of webinars at the time called Gamescom Asia's Games Market Bootcamp, with each session delving into one market in Southeast Asia plus Australia and India.
“Because we realized there were a lot of people in the games industry outside of our markets who didn't really know what was going on,” explains La Valle. “People are more familiar with China, Korea, Japan, but Southeast Asia was quite a question mark. And Southeast Asia is not one market, it's quite fragmented.”
Singapore has produced some renowned indie games such as Cuisineer Battlebrew Productions or Ghostlore by Andrew and Adam Teo. The Cat Quest franchise is also being produced in Singapore, with a third entry set to be released next week. But apart from its bustling development scene, Singapore was chosen as the home of this fragmented market for a variety of reasons.
“People are more familiar with China, Korea, Japan, but Southeast Asia was very much a question mark. And Southeast Asia is not one market, it's quite fragmented.”
“It's kind of neutral ground because English is the first language,” explains La Valle. “So it's easy for everyone to communicate, especially the B2B side of the industry. [We have] very good government support, stable government, excellent internet connection [and] infrastructure as well. And it's very well connected; we are a transportation hub so everyone can travel very easily.
“Singapore is also the headquarters of several international gaming companies for the APAC region. Ubisoft, Riot Games, Bandai Namco, Level Infinite, Netease all have large offices here, so it made sense.”
Building on the foundations of 2021, organizers have put together a hybrid Gamescom Asia for 2022, “the very first large-scale event to be held during a pandemic,” La Valle says, with each of the 2,000 attendees being tested for COVID daily; an impressive feat.
Initially the event was B2B only, until last year when a consumer show was added, and “we finally had the full scope of Gamescom Asia we dreamed of in 2019,” smiles La Valle.
“It was what we wanted and more,” she said when asked how 2023 compared to the team's original vision in 2019. “We broke the target we had in terms of attendance. [and] industry support. It was a very good performance for us. Right now we are the only event in the region that is both B2B and B2C and has a regional flavor that is not just a national event.”
Gamescom Asia 2023 gathered more than 34,000 visitors from 67 countries and 136 exhibitors. This year, Koelnmesse expects 40,000 visitors and more than 150 exhibitors at Singapore's Suntec Convention and Exhibition Centre.
“One thing we took away was the interest in the indie developer community that we had at the show,” says La Valle. “This year, we will nearly triple the space dedicated to indie developers on the consumer side of the show, [from] 30+ games to 80+ games.”
On the B2C side, Capcom, the first major publisher to be confirmed as an exhibitor, is also slated to host a Street Fighter 6 esports event, among other things. La Valle says the show will also debut an indie section as well as a cosplay competition. And there is more to announce.
On the B2B side, Shawn Layden has been confirmed for the keynote, with La Valle noting that publishers and developers in particular are the largest segments of the Gamescom Asia audience when it comes to the trade show.
“So it's all about them, to be honest, on the B2B side,” he continues. “About 40% of our attendees are developers and the other almost 20% are publishers. So the main areas on the B2B side are the exhibition and the three-round conference, which focuses on game development, business strategy, marketing and so on.
“In addition to these two main areas, we are organizing several activities to connect developers with publishers and investors. Because one of the things we want to do with Gamescom Asia, the goal of this event, is to bring together developers from Southeast Asia, give them a platform to shine, a kind of springboard to meet publishers and investors from all over the world and vice versa for publishers and investors from overseas to come here and find the next big hit made in Southeast Asia.”
Gamescom Asia's Invest Circle returns this year, a speed meeting for developers, publishers and investors.
“In one hour, publishers and investors can meet with as many developers as they can fit in short meetings, five minutes at most. Last year we had about 250 participants in total, then we [brought] to a nearby bar to casually continue these conversations over a drink or two.
“In a similar spirit, we are conducting a tendering competition. We have a panel of judges – again publishers, investors – [who] choose the ten best courses. The top ten games will be available at Gamescom Asia, the developers will present their game and finally the top three will also win a cash prize.”
In addition to her role at Koelnmesse, La Valle was recently elected to the executive committee of the Singapore Games Association. We ask her about the challenges facing developers in the city-state.
“I think one of the biggest challenges in bringing games from Southeast Asia overseas is localization. That's the main challenge, adapting elements of our culture, adapting our languages, all different languages, to a Western audience, a Chinese audience, or an American audience, and vice versa for games coming to this region.
“Sometimes people think that Southeast Asia is a block, but it's not,” he reminds. “We always talk about 'Southeast Asia' but really it's Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei. So the fragmentation of the industry, that's one of the biggest challenges.”
This fragmentation is what gives Gamescom Asia such a great role as a place where these different markets can meet.
“Going back to what I said earlier, we want to be the place where the industry comes together, from Southeast Asia, all the developers, publishers, to come here and meet the world and vice versa, for the world to meet our industry, our talents, that's why we're here.”
He concludes: “I think we're getting there, cementing that position in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world; that would be our goal. And of course to grow the show to maybe double or even triple the size we are now.” “