Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 18, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
A legal dispute between the City of Cologne, the trade-fair company and a property company seriously endangered the event – an error in the tendering process brought the organiser, Koelnmesse, before the courts. But the dispute has since been suspended, and Gamescom has opened its doors.
This year the number of releases has grown to as many as 200 game premieres. In the opinion of the Gamescom team, the best are in the categories “PC games”, “console games”, “online games”, “mobile games” and “hardware accessories”, along with a “Best of gamescom” award:
“Best of gamescom” category:
Gran Turismo 5 (Sony)
Portal 2 (Valve)
Crysis 2 (Crytek)
Star Wars The Old Republic (LucasArts)
Civilization 5 (2K)
“Hardware accessories” category:
Kinect (Microsoft)
PlayStation Move (Sony)
Cyborg R.A.T. 7 (Mad Catz)
Instruments: Rock Band 3 (MTV)
“Console” category:
MAFIA II (2K)
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montr.)
Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda)
FIFA 11 (EA)
Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Nintendo)
Gran Turismo 5 (Sony)
“PC Game” category:
Civilization 5 (2K)
Portal 2 (Valve)
Crysis 2 (Crytek)
The trade fair’s key figures have also grown: 505 exhibitors from 33 countries are participating, including 230 foreign companies and practically all of the industry giants, such as THQ Entertainment, Nvidia, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra), Roccat, Burda:ic, Parrot S.A., Perfect World Entertainment, Valve Corporation, Trion Worlds, IGG Inc, Riot Games Ltd., InstantAction and the Russian Association of Developers.
The supporting programme “games days” had already begun on August 16, with events centred on gaming taking place both at the trade fair and across the rest of Cologne.
