COVID Central: Gamescom Probably Canceled, But Will Host a Digital Show

Gamescom, perhaps the biggest electronics expo in Europe, was one of the longer holdouts in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, going ahead “as planned” since the hope was that by August, the time the trade show is typically run, things would be under control, even though it absolutely does not seem that way. But all the same, they’ve been blithering forward... until today.

No, the organizers didn’t come to their senses, but their host country did. Germany announced that they would be extending their ban on large public gatherings by another month, which means they’ll be outlawed until August 31st – which is bad for Gamescom, as it was planned to happen between August 25-29. And while they don’t specify what a “large” gathering counts as, most people would safely assume Gamescom falls under the category, considering 370,000 people went in 2018.

Gamescom still hasn’t “canceled” the event formally but has said on Twitter that this news has "impacted their plans". This could possibly mean they plan to postpone the event for a week, but it would be optimistic to assume the ban wouldn’t be extended again.

They also said they plan to have a digital exposition at the very least, so, we’ll still have something to look forward to in August, in theory.