{"id":167765,"date":"2025-08-23T00:03:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T00:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167765\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T00:03:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T00:03:15","slug":"whats-it-like-to-attend-gamescom-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167765\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s It Like To Attend Gamescom 2025?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gamescom<\/a>Image: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been to Gamescom<\/a> before. I\u2019ve heard all the rumours, though. Gamescom is obviously an event I\u2019ve been aware of for a very long time and it appears to have been growing in stature as of late \u2013 even Nintendo decided to return this year<\/a> after skipping the show in 2024.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been to the show before, then this piece isn\u2019t for you. Attending for the first time, I thought I\u2019d share my own experience for those who may want to consider attending in future.<\/p>\n

The show takes place at Koelnmesse<\/a> \u2013 no laughing in the back, I know the name sounds like what happens the day after a particularly spicy curry \u2013 which is in the German city of K\u00f6ln (aka Cologne).<\/p>\n

The predicted weather for the week was relatively warm 24-28\u00b0C (~75-83\u00b0F), and only staying for two nights meant I could pack lightly. I filled my trusty Gundam backpack<\/a> with some clothes, toiletries and my work gear (laptop, powerbank, etc.), and I was good to go.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s-a-go!
\n\"Gamescom<\/a>\"Gamescom<\/a>Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

Flying from the UK, my journey started early Tuesday morning with a 1-hour drive to Birmingham Airport, boarding a Lufthansa 1.5-hour flight to Munich and then sub 1-hour connecting flight arriving in Cologne mid-afternoon. The return journey was very different, but more on that later.<\/p>\n

The airport isn\u2019t that far from the city centre, so taking the train is probably the most cost-effective route. However, time wasn\u2019t really on my side as I still needed to check-in to my hotel in the city and then figure out how to get to the venue before Opening Night Live, there was a simpler answer: Uber.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d seen taxi rides quoted at upwards of \u20ac100, so the \u20ac35 being quoted by Uber seemed logical (and I was sharing the ride with Sammy from Push Square<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Where to stay?<\/p>\n

20 minutes or so later we were dropped off at our respective hotels and all checked-in. I stayed at 3-star Hotel Windsor<\/a> \u2013 I couldn\u2019t resist the name, having recently visited our own Windsor<\/a> \u2014 which is slightly on the edge of the city but still only a 10-15 min walk.<\/p>\n

\"Gamescom<\/a>\"Gamescom<\/a>Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

We did book accommodation slightly late (maybe 1-2 months before), and unfortunately, the prices are clearly hiked up around the time of Gamescom. We\u2019re talking about \u20ac200-250 a night for even 3-star hotels. Advice: don\u2019t leave it late, book early!<\/p>\n

Location-wise, though, I was relatively happy. The city is split in half by the Rhine River, with the exhibition centre on the right-hand side of the water. Your instinct might be to get a hotel on the same side, but I wouldn\u2019t. The majority of the city restaurants, squares, bars etc. are on the left side.<\/p>\n

Getting Around Cologne
\n\"Gamescom<\/a>\"Gamescom<\/a>Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

The two main landmarks will be Koelnmesse itself and K\u00f6lner Dom<\/a>, Cologne\u2019s absolutely stunning and unmissable (in every sense of the word) Cathedral, which is on the opposite side of the river to the event. These perfect way points mean you shouldn\u2019t get lost.<\/p>\n

Conveniently, the central train station is right next to that beyond massive Cathedral, which has a dedicated sign-posted line (or \u201ctrack\u201d in local speak). This was platform 10 whilst I was there. The Koelnmesse is the next stop across the river, so you can just about jump on any train (check the next stop on the boards).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to lie, initially, I found the trains quite difficult to navigate. There are so many different naming conventions compared to the UK. Each route has its own name and there\u2019s a mix of ICE (InnerCity Express) trains which go inter-city and more local trains too.<\/p>\n

The good news is that all of this transportation is free. Along with your Gamescom admission ticket you are issued a travel ticket that allows you to take these local trains. The ticket itself says you must carry photo identification, but my ticket was never checked.<\/p>\n

\"Gamescom<\/a>Image: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

Alternatively, it\u2019s easy to walk across the bridge, which takes around 10 minutes side to side.<\/p>\n

Opening Night Live!
\n\"Gamescom<\/a>Image: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

As well as never attending Gamescom, I\u2019ve also never been to one of these live showcases. My role has always been to assist our editorial teams during these shows, or simply make sure our websites don\u2019t fall over. They would have to survive without me this time.<\/p>\n

The stage and lighting were really impressive in person. Less impressive was the fact that seating was all at floor level, so unless you\u2019re towards the front, your view isn\u2019t anywhere near as good as it would be at a venue with tiered seats.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t understand the concept of \u201cpre-shows\u201d from a consumer point of view, I can only imagine it\u2019s a commercial standpoint to do with pricing. The pre-show had some really cool games that deserved to be in the main show, and the presenting was goofy and bordering on cheap.<\/p>\n

Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

At this point, you\u2019ve likely seen the two-hour show (or at least the highlights<\/a>). Attending it in person was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, similar to watching at home but with the crowd ‘woops’ and ‘cheers’ in full Dolby Atmos quality and the bass rumble from the trailers slapping you round the face over and over again. Maybe I\u2019m old but I think it was a bit too loud.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I got to experience it, but I\u2019m in no hurry to do it again. Full disclosure, I should also add that Gamescom were kind enough to invite Felix, Sammy and myself to the \u201cVIP\u201d ONL aftershow party where we all consumed at least 1-2 free burgers each.<\/p>\n

Is It Really That Big?
\n\"Gamescom<\/a>Image: Gamescom<\/p>\n

My ticket was provided as a QR code, so adding this to my Apple Wallet made it super easy to enter the exhibition centre at the start of Wednesday – Day 1. No having to collect your badge or wristband anywhere or any of that nonsense. Good stuff.<\/p>\n

Now then, the rumours are true: Gamescom is absolutely enormous. Whenever I\u2019ve attended exhibitions in the UK they usually take up 1 or 2 (maybe 3) halls at the NEC or the ExCeL.<\/p>\n

Gamescom takes over the entire Koelnmesse exhibition center. You\u2019re talking around 4-5 halls just for the \u201cmain\u201d games, 1 hall for merch and cosplay (split across two levels), and another hall for indie and retro games. It\u2019s so big it even spills into the carpark at the back of hall 8.<\/p>\n

Throw in another 3 halls for the business-only area and you start to understand the scale of it.<\/p>\n

Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

Once you get your head around the scale of it you\u2019ll also notice the sheer quality of the stands on offer, because of the amount of floorspace on offer booth after booth oozes with slick design and is a feast for your eyes. Kudos to anyone who worked on these stands.<\/p>\n

After doing an entire lap of the show (and taking over 500 photos) the layout was now etched in my head and I\u2019d even discovered some hacks. You can avoid those main corridors with seas of people by moving between halls using the side doors.<\/p>\n

Queues, Queues, Queues
\n\"Gamescom<\/a>\"Gamescom<\/a>Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking at my photos thinking \u201cit doesn\u2019t look that bad\u201d please keep reading. Being a member of the press I was able to look around and take all my photos on Wednesday, the day that only a small number of non-trade consumers are able to attend.<\/p>\n

I felt the show get noticeably busier on Wednesday afternoon when those consumers were allowed in, but it was nothing compared to Thursday. Oh boy, the rumours keep getting truer.<\/p>\n

335,000 people attended Gamescom in 2024 and whilst daily figures aren\u2019t available, you\u2019d have to estimate that at least \u2153 of them were there on each day. It\u2019s hard to imagine 100,000 people shuffling around the event halls but in reality, it\u2019s wave after wave after wave of people moving in every direction constantly \u2013 it\u2019s a little overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

There are a lot of games at the show, true, but every game has a limited capacity, some better than others. Long queues for popular games form almost immediately. Some people have clearly been before and have brought their own fold-out chairs \u2013 smart \u2013 because they know they are going to be queuing for hour(s) before it\u2019s their turn to grab the controller.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever been to a theme park in peak season and waited 2 hours to go on a roller coaster, then you\u2019re in the right ballpark. These are theme park-level of queues, perhaps not in physical length, but in terms of wait time.<\/p>\n

Variety is King
\n\"Gamescom<\/a>Image: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

Away from a negative and onto a positive, I was blown away by the amount of different things going on at the show. There was an absolute ton of big games and an amazing amount of indie games too.<\/p>\n

No only that, though, there were lots of other attractions such as the EVA (Esports Virtual Arena) booth, a human foosball table, cosplay village, ninja warrior-style challenges and inflatables.<\/p>\n

Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

A huge number of peripherals were showcased too, especially those from the sim-racing world, I think I counted at least six different manufacturers of racing wheels all showing off their products on sim rigs.<\/p>\n

There was also a complete spectrum (not that one<\/a>) of merchandise too all the way from the stereotypical anime figurine fest all the way up to a fully stocked official LEGO store. There was tons of trading card vendors and even an artist area. I didn\u2019t see anyone selling retro games, though, but almost anything else gaming you can think of.<\/p>\n

\"Gamescom<\/a>Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

As a bit of a car nerd, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of cars at the show, including this absolutely beastly GR Yaris.<\/p>\n

What Are The Food and Drink Options?
\n\"Gamescom<\/a>\"Gamescom<\/a>Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

The areas outside between the halls are where most of the food vendors can be found. You can get food in some of the halls but they are few and far between. I actually really liked the fact that the show generally separated the food away from the showfloor.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, outside it was the expected pom frites (chips), burgers, bratwursts (hog dogs), fried chicken and pretzels on offer. The quality was decent, probably better than food in the UK, to be honest. I should add that there was also a very popular Subway stand on the showfloor.<\/p>\n

\"Gamescom<\/a>Image: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

Inside, you could get more sweet treats like crepes and churros. Aside from these vendors, there were also some smaller convenience-style stores in the main concourse areas, but I did notice that some of these were cash-only.<\/p>\n

Drinks were heavily weighted towards your usual bottles of Coke, Fanta, and Red Bull is clearly very popular in Germany. (TIL Germans love to mix Fanta and Coke to make a drink called ‘Spezi’<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

Prices were slightly on the high side, with a pretzel and Red Bull setting me back around \u20ac9. On the upside service was good, fast and minimal queuing. On the downside, there aren\u2019t many ‘proper’ places\/tables to sit down near these food vans; you\u2019ll end up perched on the floor or a random surface you can find, if you\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n

Race Across The World<\/p>\n

As I alluded to above, my return journey was not quite as simple. Lufthansa operate trains as \u201cvirtual flight connections\u201d. Not quite sure how this worked, I arrived at the train station well ahead of time and managed to decipher the board and found my platform. So far, so good.<\/p>\n

I was slightly curious as to how this all worked as the connection time between arrival at Frankfurt Airport (from the train) and Departure boarding was only 30 minutes or so.<\/p>\n

\"Gamescom<\/a>Image: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

I keep watching the board and suddenly my train is updated and scheduled 5 minutes late. Then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 25 minutes. I check my Lufthansa app, and a notice appears \u201cyour connection is now at risk and we are monitoring the situation\u201d. Great. It\u2019s the last flight to BHX of the day, so if I do miss it, I\u2019ll have to be put in a hotel overnight, and my wife will have to miss work tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The high-speed (265km\/h) ICE train finally arrives, and we depart nearly 35 minutes late. Whilst on the train I study the airport map to see where my gate is and the fastest route \u2013 like any good gamer would.<\/p>\n

Train pulls into the station, I sling my 8kg backpack on and start running down the platform, up the stairs across the link bridge up more stairs and into the terminal. My calves are burning as it\u2019s now 10 minutes before boarding is due to close.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fairly late in the day, so thankfully the passport control has no queue – the guard stamps my passport and I rush through security. Of course, my backpack gets the dreaded punt of shame into the \u201cwe\u2019re going to check your bag\u201d lane.<\/p>\n

The clock ticks on like an escape sequence at the beginning of an action game. The guard clears my bag and I sling it back on, looking like Sam Porter Bridges from Death Stranding<\/a> as I continue to run through the airport to my gate.<\/p>\n

I reach my gate with 5 minutes to spare, only for an announcement to follow shortly after telling us that boarding is being delayed for 20-25 minutes whilst they \u201cget the plane ready\u201d.<\/p>\n

Morale of the story: it\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/p>\n

Cologne was a nice city to visit and I felt safe walking back to my hotel fairly late at night. I can\u2019t claim to have seen loads of the city, but what I saw was pleasant. The city centre is very tourist-friendly as it welcomes visitors to it\u2019s Cathedral on a year-round basis.<\/p>\n

\"Gamescom<\/a>\"Gamescom<\/a>Images: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

Gamescom was similar to shows I\u2019ve attended before, but on a whole new scale. It\u2019s massive. It\u2019s loud. It\u2019s busy. There are people everywhere. It\u2019s hot. It\u2019s tiring \u2013 I did 50,000 steps (~35km) across my two day visit. The queues are often long, but not always.<\/p>\n

Would I recommend attending? I think it comes down to your priorities. If you\u2019re going hellbent on playing the latest AAA games, it\u2019s a tough ask considering the cost of travel. If you\u2019re going with friends, taking your time and soak up the festival-esque atmosphere and maybe play some games along the way, there is a much better chance you\u2019ll get value for money.<\/p>\n

Time for a sleep. \ud83e\udee0<\/p>\n

Did you go to Gamescom this year? Have you attended before? What was your experience? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Anthony launched Nintendo Life<\/a> in late 2005 and has remained at the helm ever since. He loves Nintendo but sometimes gets confused and tells everyone that F-Zero X is the best game. We’ve tried getting him help, but alas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Anthony Dickens \/ Nintendo Life I\u2019ve never been to Gamescom before. I\u2019ve heard all the rumours, though.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2879,3095,96268,394,158,1164,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-167765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-events","9":"tag-features","10":"tag-gamescom","11":"tag-nintendo","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-travel","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115075154552420600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}