Gamescom continues its mission to build a global brand for international events, with its Asian trade show taking place in Singapore this October.
Between the successful launch of Gamescom Latam earlier this year, the return of the original trade show to Cologne in a few weeks, and Gamescom Asia from October 17-20, 2024, it will mark the first year that all three events will be held in full force.
Although Gamescom's parent company Koelnmesse is only acting as co-organiser of the Latin American edition, it is fully behind Gamescom Asia. Project manager Daria La Valle tells us that the event wants to be a platform for Southeast Asia to “come together”. The German Video Game Industry Association is also behind the wheel, as the owner of the Gamescom brand worldwide.
La Valle has worked for Koelnmesse Singapore for the past decade and has lived in the city-state for 15 years. She started working at Gamescom Asia in 2019 and has thus experienced the arduous road that led her to this 2024 edition.
COVID-19 impacted the year the event was scheduled to debut, so Gamescom Asia was postponed until 2021.
“It was a difficult time, if I have to be honest,” La Valle laughs when asked what it was like to experience this behind the scenes. “I remember that when COVID hit in February 2020, we had already sold half of the exhibition space, we had several editors on board, it looked very promising, there were still eight months to go until the fair in October 2020.”
“We all know what happened: the pandemic hit. We had to hit the brakes hard and, like many other event organisers, we decided to go online. Of course, we had the advantage of being in Singapore because the internet infrastructure is really good here, but at the same time, we didn't want our first Gamescom Asia to be only online.”
Koelnmesse also hosted a series of webinars at the time under the name Gamescom Asia Games Market Bootcamp, with each session focusing on a single Southeast Asian market, plus Australia and India.
“Because we realized that there were a lot of people in the gaming industry outside of our markets who didn’t really know what was going on,” La Valle explains. “People are more familiar with China, Korea and Japan, but Southeast Asia was pretty much an unknown. And Southeast Asia is not a single market, it’s quite fragmented.”
Singapore has produced some big-name indie games, including Battlebrew Productions’ Cuisineer and Andrew and Adam Teo’s Ghostlore. The Cat Quest franchise was also created in Singapore, with the third instalment releasing next week. But beyond its busy development scene, Singapore was chosen as the home of this fragmented market for a number of reasons.
“People are more familiar with China, Korea and Japan, but Southeast Asia was an unknown. And Southeast Asia is not a single market, it's quite fragmented.”
“It's kind of a neutral ground, as English is the first language,” La Valle explains. “So it's easy for everyone to communicate, especially for the B2B sector. (We have) very good government support, stable government, excellent internet connectivity (and) also infrastructure. And it's very well connected; we're a hub in terms of transportation, so everyone can travel very easily.
“Singapore is also the Asia-Pacific headquarters for several international gaming companies. Ubisoft, Riot Games, Bandai Namco, Level Infinite, Netease… they all have large offices here, so it made sense.”
Building on the foundations of 2021, organizers staged a hybrid Gamescom Asia for 2022 — “the first large-scale event to take place during the pandemic,” La Valle says — with each of the 2,000 attendees tested for COVID daily; an impressive feat.
Initially, the event was B2B-only, until a consumer event was added last year and “we finally had the full-scale Gamescom Asia we had dreamed of in 2019,” smiles La Valle.
“It was what we wanted and more,” he says when asked how the 2023 edition compares to the team’s original vision in 2019. “We exceeded the target we had in terms of visitor numbers (and) industry support. It was a very good result for us. Right now, we are the only event in the region that is both B2B and B2C, and has a regional flavour that is not just a national event.”
Gamescom Asia 2023 brought together more than 34,000 visitors from 67 countries and 136 exhibitors. This year, Koelnmesse expects 40,000 attendees and more than 150 exhibitors at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre in Singapore.
“One thing that really stood out to us was the interest that the indie developer community generated at the show,” La Valle says. “This year, we nearly tripled the space given to indie developers in the consumer section of the show, from over 30 games to over 80 games.”
On the B2C side, Capcom, the first major publisher to be confirmed as an exhibitor, is also set to host a Street Fighter 6 esports event, among others. La Valle says the event will also debut a section for independent artists, as well as a cosplay competition. And there's more to be announced.
On the B2B side, Shawn Layden has been confirmed as the keynote speaker, with La Valle noting that publishers, and developers in particular, are the largest audience segments at Gamescom Asia when it comes to the trade show.
“To be honest, in the B2B space it's all about them,” she continues. “About 40% of our attendees are developers and there's another 20% who are publishers. So the main areas in the B2B space are the exhibition and a three-track conference that focuses on game development, business strategies, marketing, etc.
“Besides these two main areas, we organize some activities to bring developers together with publishers and investors. Because one of the things we want to do with Gamescom Asia, the goal of the event, is to bring developers from Southeast Asia together, to give them a platform to shine, a kind of springboard to meet publishers and investors from around the world. And vice versa, for publishers and investors from abroad to come here and discover the next big game hit created in Southeast Asia.”
Gamescom Asia's Invest Circle will return this year, a fast-paced networking session for developers, publishers and investors.
“In one hour, publishers and investors can meet with as many developers as they can in short meetings, five minutes maximum. Last year we had about 250 attendees in total, then we took them to a nearby bar to continue those conversations informally over a drink or two.
“In the same vein, we run a pitch competition. We have a panel of judges (again, they are publishers, investors) who select the top ten pitches. The top ten games will be showcased at Gamescom Asia, developers will present their games, 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 Gaming Association. We asked her about the challenges facing developers in the city-state.
“I think one of the biggest challenges when it comes to bringing Southeast Asian games overseas is localization. That's the biggest challenge: adapting elements of our culture, adapting our languages, all the different languages, to a Western audience, Chinese or American. And vice versa, for games coming to this region.
“Sometimes people think that Southeast Asia is one block, but it's not,” he reminds us. “We always talk about 'Southeast Asia', but in fact it's Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Brunei. So the fragmentation of the industry is one of the biggest challenges.”
This fragmentation is what gives Gamescom Asia such an important role, as a place where these different markets can meet.
“Going back to what I said before, we want to be a place where the industry comes together, from Southeast Asia, all the developers, the publishers, to come here and meet the world and vice versa, for the world to get to know our industry, our talents. That's why we're here.”
He concludes: “I think we are achieving that, consolidating that position in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world, that would be our goal. And of course, growing the program until it maybe doubles or even triples the size we have now.”