Gamescom directors Felix Falk and Tim Endres are stepping up their game: “The old excitement is back”

Gamescom 2024 marks the “biggest event for games in the world,” according to its organizers.

Gamescom Opening Night Live / Koelnmesse / Gamescom / Marvin Ruppert

For Felix Falk, managing director of Game - The German Games Industry Association, and Tim Endres, director of Gamescom, this is a “360-degree festival” with more booths, attendees, and surprises than ever. 

Numbers-wise, there’s a 15% increase in exhibitors, meaning more exciting new video games to see and play. That’s alongside a new social stage for budding influencers, a new tabletop section, and a spike in ticket sales for Opening Night Live so sharp they had to move it to a bigger hall. 

Talking to Falk and Endres, however, you’d think they’re organizing a BBQ. The calm and collected pair have been running Gamescom so long they’ve apparently transcended the effects of pressure. “If we had nerves at this point,” says Falk, “something would be wrong.”

Felix Falk (L), managing director of Game - The German Games Industry Association, and Tim Endres (R), director of Gamescom / Koelnmesse

The “biggest event for games in the world,” it seems, is in safe hands. Read our full interview below, in which we cover the challenges of putting on Gamescom 2024, the pair’s most cherished moments from the event’s legendary history, and more. 

Sports Illustrated: How many Gamescom events have you both organized? 

Felix Falk: Tim more than me. Tim was there from the very beginning. I started preparing together with the team in 2008 for the premier edition in 2009. So that’s 15 years ago. It’s the 16th edition this year, and this time Gamescom developed very fast and very rapidly in terms of exhibitors. We have three times more exhibitors than in the premier in 2009. And we could speak for a whole day about what happened in the last 15 years because I have attended since the beginning.

How are the excitement levels for you both in the run-up to this one? 

Tim Endres: As always. With the exception that we are still somehow feeling how we felt during the pandemic, and so for me it’s still special, Gamescom after the pandemic, because we learned so much. The team is still very proud that we were able to establish highly relevant digital platforms which we now offer in a hybrid way to all our 1400 exhibitors. We have a new exhibitor record, 1400 coming from 64 countries, and that feels good. 

Falk: On my side there’s no Gamescom without excitement, because it’s just the greatest and biggest event for games in the world. So it’s always exciting… the old excitement, I would say, is back. 

Gamescom / Koelnmesse

Congrats on the exhibitor record, 15% more than last year. Why the step up?

Endres: That wasn’t expected. It’s a huge step up, yeah. 

Falk: It’s a combination of different things. Gamescom is now hybrid, so our digital platforms are very relevant for our exhibitors, and we see a much higher international scope. That’s always also something that comes with the digital relevance and the worldwide digital reach, because it’s not only about the more than 300,000 fans on site, it’s about the millions viewing worldwide, and so also, our exhibitors are coming from all over the world. We are expecting visitors from more than 100 countries, so it’s very international. That is why the exhibitors are increasing every year. 

And just one more reason. With the higher internationality we also see that there are more country pavilions. So a country pavilion combines a lot of smaller companies from one country to one pavilion and this brings in a lot of exhibitors and a lot of especially small developers and companies. 

Last year we had 33 pavilions from 26 countries. This number has gone up from 33 to 48 country pavilions. So that’s a huge step and shows more internationalization. 

Endres: Yeah, and in addition, of course, the unique concept of Gamescom is the reason why we have both a B2B area and B2C areas. We serve the whole gaming community, the whole gaming ecosystem, all gaming communities coming together on the same day, the same place here in Cologne once a year, and that’s very special. You will find it nowhere else and that’s also the reason, the unique concept, why so many exhibitors are coming this year. 

Would it be fair to say, then, that this is the biggest Gamescom ever? 

Falk: It depends what KPI you take. Definitely it will be the biggest concerning space exhibitors. But we have so many KPIs and we are expecting millions to take part in, go in Opening Night Live. Not only in this show, but also the whole week. 

This is a bit more subjective, but would you say that Gamescom is culturally the biggest event on the gaming calendar? 

Falk: I definitely would say so because it’s the only event representing the whole industry and, second, the whole games universe, because of our approach of the development of Gamescom being now a 360 degree festival. 

So you find it all. You find esports, cosplay, retro, you even have a music festival around games in town, you have a camping site, you have LAN parties. Everything connected to the games culture is represented somehow and this makes it unique.

Esports stage at Gamescom / Koelnmesse

What would you like fans of video games in general to know ahead of this year’s event? 

Falk: Well maybe about the new things at Gamescom. I’m very excited to see the news of all the exhibitors. And then there are some additions into the program on-site for Gamescom. For example, there’s a new cards and boards area, and we have a new social stage.

So with cards and boards, we are introducing an area to meet the demand from our fans, because they wanted more tabletop content at Gamescom. This section will be located in Hall 5, and we have big names, big brands like Ravensburger, Konami, Hasbro and many others, which are all focusing on tabletop games, trading cards and similar content. 

And then, second, there’s a social stage, and it’s located in Hall 11, and there’s a great program running from Thursday to Sunday in the afternoon, each day, and it will offer a variety of content, including live podcasts, pen and paper sessions, and music performances. You can expect everything from anime soundtracks on piano to jazz covers of video game music. We’re doing a lot in terms of social media. We have a signing area where fans can meet their stars and get a one-on-one signing session, and we have a great co-working space where the creators can work. 

And then there’s a new building at Koelnmesse. It’s a state-of-the-art venue, Europe’s most modern Congress Center, and it will be the home for the first time for both Devcon or Developer Conference, as well as the Gamescom Congress. That’s more B2B, not B2C, but it’s a very important new venue at Gamescom. 

And then, last but not least, we have a gamification tool, a text adventure for our fans. It’s called Epix, and at Epix there’s a new thing that we will have for the first time, Gamescom trading cards. These cards highlight different aspects of Gamescom, from special areas and shows or characters, like our mascot Ippi, as well as local content creators, which are also represented on these cards. And the more cards the fans collect, the more prizes they can win, ranging from discount codes to games or even hardware. 

Endres: And just to add here, because some of your readers might not be able to come over to Germany, Cologne, two things they should know. First, it’s the best location. Plan your next holiday. Next year your readers should come over to Germany to dive into the whole Gamescom experience. 

Second, Gamescom is pure digital or pure hybrid. So the best recommendation is to check into Gamescom Opening Night Live and in there they will not only see all the new announcements and what’s coming, but also what can be expected in the days after at Gamescom, because a lot of this content is streamed, and is available online. Now they will even find a timetable where they can plan their digital participation in Gamescom, where a lot is offered to them. 

Gamescom Opening Night Live / Koelnmesse

Why is Cologne such a good host of Gamescom?

Falk: It is so good because it’s in the heart of Germany and Europe. It’s a town not too big to forget about Gamescom if you are in town, but big enough to host an event with a size like this, but still comfortable. So the whole town embraces and celebrates games.

Even leaving Gamescom on-site and going into town, you will find Gamescom everywhere. The whole town is celebrating the games, and I think that’s really impressive for all the people. It makes it really special just not to name all these perfect conditions. 

In the run up to this one, what elements make you the most nervous?

Falk: I’m not nervous, I’m excited, and I mean we are already preparing for Gamescom 25, 26 and following. So this is, as Tim said, a really professional team working on this. So if we would be nervous now, there would be something wrong, and I’m glad we are not. As I said, we worked the whole year on the event. 

Endres: After each event we make a deep dive: what was good, what should be better? And then we have time to optimize it, and that’s what we did in different parts and that makes Gamescom better this year again. 

Speaking of which, what did you look at from last year that you want to improve and what did you want to iterate on or remove? 

Falk: For example, there’s the cards and boards area that I mentioned. That was a demand from our fans. That was also feedback at our exhibitor board that this perfectly fits to Gamescom and that’s what we will see as a premiere this year. 

Then, of course, our different digital shows. We’re always aiming to make them better and more exciting. It’s not only Gamescom Open Night Live, also Gamescom Awesome Indies, our cosplay contest, our Gamescom Studio. We do all those shows and formats with different partners and we have always deep dives with them. 

Just to pick out something, Gamescom Opening Night Live. Last year we had 2,200 people on site and we decided, because there were so many requests for tickets, we decided to double the audience this year and move it into new halls. So this changes a lot in operations but also gives a potential to you know, to see the excitement of the community even more because more people. 

Cosplayers at last year' s event / Koelnmesse

What have been some of your favourite Gamescom memories over the years? 

Endres: Very special was the year 2016, when we had the Gamescom Cathedral, the Cologne Cathedral, the Dome as part of the City Festival. With the Gamescom City Festival, we bring the games into the city cente. The whole of Cologne is celebrating the games. That was a very special moment, there was light show and laser and DJ set in the cathedral. 

Falk: For me, because we are in the association, we deal a lot with Geoff Keighley, because I worked together with him on the idea, and there was a lot of preparation. And so it was special when everything came together for the first year. And COVID, the first digital year. That was really special. It’s a memory, not only good memory because it was a hell of a lot of work, but I’m glad we did it, and that was special as well. 

Endres: I would have added Angela Merkel as well, but I didn’t want to grab her from the table because that’s more of a big spot. 

What would you say is a particular challenge of putting together this year’s Gamescom?

Endres: We’re very well prepared for all the challenges there might be. The challenge for participating exhibitors and partners is that Gamescom is so big and has so many aspects that it’s hard for them to use all of them. And that’s also something I always tell members. Prepare early enough to use everything, because we offer so much and it doesn’t even cost money in many areas. But if you want to take most out of Gamescom you have to do really nice planning.

I always take some time on the Saturday to speak to random people, and it impresses me that you speak to five people and they have experienced totally different things at Gamescom and not seen similar things. That makes it great for the community because they can actually spend three days at Gamescom and still find new things. But it’s also a challenge for exhibitors to think of everything they want to use. 

There’s also so much taking place at the same time, and on 230,000 square meters of exhibition space it’s hard to attend four meetings at the same time, so that might be also a challenge. 

Falk: Yeah, it’s not so easy because you can’t be everywhere. It’s definitely hard to break the laws [of physics] because you can’t be everywhere. 

Gamescom / Koelnmesse

What do you want to clarify about Gamescom?

Falk: It’s so important for us as the games industry to also think of aspects of responsibility in different areas. We are very active at Gamescom around the areas of sustainability, climate protection and diversity, also accessibility.

Every year we make new steps to have new partnerships and help to make the world a little better and use this impact. Just to give you an example, Gamescom Goes Green. That’s a project we started some years ago and this year we have new areas where we make games come greener every year. 

Also, for people in wheelchairs. We have a new rule for all the booths that the booth itself should be accessible to people in wheelchairs. So these are areas that are important to us to also cover, knowing the importance of Gamescom and using this impact for any areas of responsibility we find important. 

Endres: Well, we have another exciting problem in terms of creators and influencers, influencers which are still small. But we will help them to grow and help them to use Gamescom also for their future growth, and this is a new program which we launched also. 

We had an agency that was mainly working with creators, and they taught them many, many things, from KPIs to how to create content, content plans, stuff like that. And this road trip, as I call it, now ends with Gamescom, where they will attend as creators, having the chance even though they do not have or reach the guidelines we usually have for a creator accreditation, and they will be on stage being interviewed there. They will stream from the event and they will be shown around. Many of them are at Gamescom for the very first time, so it is a very nice initiative to really help them grow and use the context we have to build for the future.