Maybe it will be the last time the “Games Convention” will take place, definitively it will be the last time in its current shape… for now.
The German association of entertainment software industry leaders called “BIU” has decided to support the Cologne Trade Fair from next year on. The show is named “GAMESCom“, because Leipziger Messe GmbH is holding the rights for the name “Games Convention” and has keenly announced to continue to bring them into line. But without the industry leaders it will not be the same. And so it will depend on the success of the successor, if the BIU will come back to Leipzig. I doubt a clear failure, so this year will be the last for the established trade show.
In 2008 I am going to attend the “GCDC“, which is the developer conference right before the trade show. Keynode speakers are Michael Capps (Epic Games), Cevat Yerli (Crytek), David Perry (Acclaim Games) and Chris Taylor (Gas Powered Games).
Mainly I will visit programming and developing lectures like “Driving DirectX in a parallel World”, “COLLADA – An intermediate format for game developers” or “Practical use of Screen Space Ambient Occlusion”.
Unfortunately the conference is taking place from Monday, 18th until Wednesday, 20th, which is also the trade visitor day for the show. At that day you have the best chance to play all the future games because of the missing public visitors. So I have to try it between our business meetings from Thursday on: “Fallout 3“, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed“, “Mirror’s Edge” and many more… I am coming.