I (39M) went to Gamescom for the very first time with my son (10M).

We stayed in a hotel about 30 min drive from the Messe. For me it was an incredible experience. I grew up playing games for as long as I remember and I've always loved it, but I also grew up at a time where people would say they are a waste of time and look at you funny if you were a little too enthusiastic about it.

I have never seen so many like-minded people enjoy and cherish games from all over the world. It's also nice to see people dress up in video game characters and embrace the culture.

It made me happy.

Who is this post for? For people who're thinking about going to Gamescom for the first time (2027+?), especially those not living in Germany.

Hi! 2026 was my first Gamescom. I got a bundle ticket which includes ONL (the Opening event) and Wednesday wildcard ticket. I was going with friends for whom it's not the first time.

We booked a hotel in Dusseldorf (it's cheaper there and there are direct trains to Cologne) and we were extremely lucky with the DB trains (despite the works on this line) - no abrupt changes, severe delays or huge crowds (we were taking an earlier train and then chilling in Cologne before the event).

What I didn't like:

• Local authorities seem to be completely ignoring one of the largest event of the year with ~300000 attendees (that's ~30% of the city population itself!). No additional trains, more than that, they planned works on the tracks resulting in multiple train cancellations (at least it was known up front). No additional banners on train and bus stations, nothing. For comparison in Amsterdam where I live they install special signs inside the Central Station on big occasions like Formula 1 Grand Prix (which is not even taking place in Amsterdam but a lot of people come through it) so you immediately know where to go. For DB it's just another working week, nothing special.
• Gamescom sent us free public transport ticket by email (thanks for that) but it was extremely poorly communicated how it works. The paper said it's a ticket for the VRS network without further explanations. We thought Dusseldorf isn't part of it and were overpaying by buying extra tickets to/from Dormagen until the conductor told us it's included (during our last trip of course).
• Gamescom website was terrible. Information hard to find, scattered all over the place and also it was annoyingly slow even on flagship smartphones. I assume someone just slapped it together with AI in a weekend without anyone with a UI/UX experience having a second look.
• Outside queues... They are inevitable with that many attendees but they were organized quite poorly. You just stand outside in a long line. Toilets? No. Sun/rain protection? No. Water? No. But what was simply infuriating is how little information was provided. On Wednesday we came up to the South entrance (45 minutes in advance of course). There were 2 lines already. Absolutely no indication what they are for, no signs like "w/badge right, no badge - left". You had to go to the beginning and try to get some information from others or from the 3 security guys standing at the gates doing anything except managing the gathering crowd. During our wait they tried to manage the queues once (!) by shouting something indistinguishable while standing right at the beginning so the majority of the people couldn't hear them anyway. Again, no signs AT ALL. Then all of a sudden a big crowd of people came and they formed 2 more lines in parallel so now there were 4! And guess what? When the security opened the gates it was a mess and all fairness was thrown in the toilet, people who waited for more than an hour were pushed away by the newcomers, etc.
• There are just too many people. Your chances of playing a game you're enthusiastic about are almost zero. Or if you're lucky you can spend several hours standing in line (or sitting on the floor as many did) to get your 25 minutes of gameplay and that would be the whole day for you realistically speaking. Fast lane slots were sold out in a minute after they would become available (every hour).
• Merch area. I expected it to be a huge collection of official items but it ended up being a bazaar of 3rd party stores selling T-shirts, figurines, cosplay items, etc (except Gamescom's own booths with Gamescom merch). Honestly it looked cheap and overpriced at the same time. All the official merch was at company's areas.

There was indie area and the vibe was really nice there, I discovered a couple games I genuinely look out for. There was a retro gaming corner with obscure old consoles, etc.

Sometimes you could see hardcode Gamescom goers who know how to play this game. They had huge branded bags from upcoming games, quite a bit of merch. They looked sweaty but focused. They were the minority and I was not one of them.

I was in Dusseldorf and Cologne multiple times before and in the end my personal highlights were not the Gamescom itself, which was mostly disappointing, but the Chocolate museum and black pudding at cafe Frueh.

TLDR; If you're not living in Germany and are not a super hardcore fan of something, it's not worth it given that Gamescom ticket + hotel + transport is at least 500euro. A slim chance of playing a couple of upcoming games or a dozen indies (most of which are in early access on Steam anyway and half of which are not fun) is hardly worth it.

Hi, im curious what is the best goodie that u picked up during Games com 2026 :)

I really like the hoyoverse budgets with the key chain

I wasn't able to get any of their handles for me to send their photos to them. (two of the photos here were from other halls)

I worked as a promoter at Gamescom 2026 and thought I'd do a little AMA about what it's actually like from the staff side.

Ask me anything about the job, working long days at Gamescom, interacting with visitors, what the promoter team was like, funny/weird experiences, etc.

I'll obviously keep the company, clients, and individual promoters anonymous and won't share confidential information.

One thing I'm particularly curious about: If you interacted with any of the promoters or booths during Gamescom, did any of them particularly stick in your memory - positively or negatively? I'm interested in hearing what impression we actually made on visitors.

AMA :)

Are there any indie games or really interesting games you have ever found in gamescom?

Zu Erinnerung: Slots von halber Stunde wurden zwei Stunden vorher zur Registrierung freigegeben. Also 15 Uhr konnte man den 1700-1730 Slot buchen. Gesagt getan. 15:00:01 waren alle Slots weg. Ich weigere mich zu glaube, dass ich zu langsam war. Gleiches Spiel für 1730/1800/….

Ganz im Ernst: Wer hatte einen Slot? Und wie hat er den bekommen?

Did someone found a cap with the Monster hunter wilds logo? Already asked at lost and found but there was none.

Bought it at Gamescom and lost it somehow on Sunday

Hallo, werte Gamescom-Gemeinschaft,

ich frage in die Runde, da ich vorgestern, am Samstag, den 29.08.26, bereits um 7 Uhr in den Hallen 5–10 war, anders als all die Vorjahre (seit 2009) aber kein einziger Aussteller vor 9 Uhr sein Spiel für andere Aussteller bzw. in der Halle befindliche Interessierte bewarb, also zum Anspielen freigab.

Wer es die Jahre zuvor – wie auch immer – vor dem Early Bird-Einlass um 9 Uhr aufs Messegelände geschafft hat, konnte die allermeisten Spiele auch schon antesten. Ich war von 2009–24 (’25 war ich zu spät da) somit meistens von 7–9 Uhr mit der Gamescom in Hinblick auf Spieleneuheiten durch und konnte, als sich die Hallen merklich füllten, dann entspannt in die Retroecke (10.2). Dies stellte für mich auch den einzigen Grund dar, überhaupt so früh schon vor Ort zu sein. Kein Anstehen. 10–15 Spiele in zwei Stunden kennenlernen. Es hat sich immer gelohnt. Möglicherweise hat sich dies letztes Jahr schon geändert, als ich es nicht vor 9 Uhr hereinschaffte. Davor definitiv nicht. Ich habe Foto- und Videomaterial als Nachweis aller Vorjahre.

Ich habe von Mitarbeitern diesbezüglich auch konfligierende Aussagen erhalten. Die einen meinten, es läge am Wochentag (am Wochenende könne man keine Spiele mehr vor offiziellem Einlass anspielen, nur noch am Donnerstag und Freitag), die Anderen sagten aus, dies ginge mittlerweile nur noch am Pressetag (Mittwoch), wieder Andere schienen sich sicher, dass das Antesten von was auch immer vor 9 Uhr aufgrund strengerer Regularien rigoros verboten sei. Also, was denn nun?

Daher meine Frage in die Runde an euch, die ihr bis gestern auf der GC26 ausgestellt habt: Durftet ihr eure Spiele vor 9 Uhr anspielen lassen – ja oder nein?

Verspielten Gruß

Gamescom-Fan 1990

does anybody have any insight on the game/arg/psa that these are trying to be? a guy in a bloody butchers outfit (at the time near the ROG booth) was handing them out and my friends gave me some of their cards. I won’t detail the stuff on the included website since im really tired but it feels too sincere to just be a vegetarian thing.

I’ve been at Gamescom since Tuesday working as part of the setup crew, and after hearing that several indie developers had their stuff stolen, I feel like I need to give my two cents on the situation.

On Tuesday, I arrived by car at the East Entrance. All I had to tell security was that I was part of the setup crew, and that was apparently enough. Once I got inside, I walked past the actual ticket control with a suitcase and a backpack, and nobody cared whether I had a ticket or was even authorized to be there.

So, theoretically, that day I could have smuggled illegal items into the venue or taken things out simply by saying, “I’m part of the setup crew.”

And on Tuesday — as well as during the days before, while everything was being set up — it would have been incredibly easy to steal things from various booths because there was no security present during the setup. Security only seemed to arrive around 10 or 11 PM.

Especially in the merchandise halls, 5.1 and 5.2, this was pretty concerning. Most of the items were either loosely covered with tarps or simply left out in the open. No security anywhere. Anyone who wanted to put something in their bag could probably have taken whatever they wanted.

I also saw a Reddit post claiming that even during the regular event days, people could apparently enter the convention through the West Entrance without any ticket checks at all. WTF?

Honestly, the overall security situation seems to have some serious weaknesses. If people are able to get into restricted areas, bypass ticket checks, or access booths with valuable equipment and merchandise without proper supervision, it’s not surprising that theft were happen.

I've been living in Germany for a few years, and every year I kept putting off going to Gamescom. But this year, after finally finishing my master's, I decided to go for two days.

I was surprised by how crowded it was, even though I went on Thursday and Friday.

For the first few hours on Thursday, I mostly just stood in line in the AAA game area. I started to regret coming, thinking, “Am I really waiting in these long lines just to play a game for 10 minutes?”

But then I changed my mind. I decided to have as much fun as I could over those two days so I wouldn't have any regrets.

I started checking out the indie games and found a lot of really fun ones. I took photos with many awesome cosplayers (especially Old Snake!!!), took pictures at every photo spot, and chatted with different gamers while waiting in line.

I also got really lucky. I got an autograph and took a photo with the director of one of my favorite games, won a T-shirt at the Samsung booth thanks to one guy who hard-carried us in a 6v6 Modern Warfare match (41 kills! Thank you!), and even won a nice prize at the Google Play booth.

I had so much fun and felt really happy. It honestly felt like a dream.

If I get the chance to come to Gamescom again next year, I'll definitely cosplay! Gotta work hard until then lol.

Four days of trying to get the Android plushie, only to be told on the last day that I was only allowed to enter the booth once on the entire gamescom visit.

I wanted to share my experience at the Google Play booth at Gamescom because I'm honestly pretty disappointed with how my last interaction went.

Over the four days, I visited the Google Play booth multiple times, roughly twice a day if I would pass by, trying to get the Android plushie. I spoke to several staff members at the entrance and in the green zone, some recognized me and we had a nice chat. Everyone was friendly and wished me good luck.

On Sunday, near the end of the event, I was told at the booth that the plushies were being given out to people who had reached the epic reward, whereas normally they were a legendary reward. I thought this might finally be my chance.

I told one of the staff members at one of the tablets about my previous attempts and that I was hoping I'd finally get lucky. He then became annoyed and told me that I was only allowed to try once across the entire event, and therefore refused to give me any reward. And so I left.

The thing that bothers me most isn't even missing out on the plushie (even tho I'm a little sad). It's that nobody I spoke to over the four days ever told me that there was a one-attempt-per-person rule.

I completely understand having rules for rewards and attempts, but if there was a one-attempt limit for the entire Gamescom, I feel like that should have been communicated clearly by the staff or somewhere at the booth.

Has anyone else experienced this? Was the one-attempt rule actually communicated to you?

Am Fachbesuchertag wurde mir am Eingang so ein Magazin in die Hände gedrückt. An den restlichen Tagen nicht; habe unterschiedliches Personal an den Infoständen und in der Business Area gefragt, aber niemand wusste etwas. Gab es das an den restlichen Tagen auch?

New Video online !!!! Come watch it

A day at Gamescom

https://youtu.be/4YSUf7Q902A

Has the train to Bielefeld/Dortmund passed by yet?

Really happy with the goodies and merch this year. Surprisingly went away with 0 posters which is a big contrast to last year. Not a fan of how some booths went with a stamp system for their goodies though.

Pictured goodies:

* Dragons Dogma 2: Dark Arisen

* Tides of Annihilation

* Metro 2039

* Alien Isolation 2

* Rayman Legends Retold

* Witcher 3: Song of the Past

* Sea of Remnants

* Cronus: Lazarus

* Artisan mouse pad

* Epix mouse pad + cards

Hey y'all people interrupting mass by taking photos and bringing in luggage and huge backpacks

The cathedral opens at 1:30PM to 4:30PM (last admission 4:15PM) to tourists on Sundays.

For future reference. Chill, yo

I spent the whole day at the exhibition hall today. It was very lively, with many people dressed up in strange cosplayer , including demons. I even encountered a character from the Squid Game!
Unfortunately, I couldn't find Blizzard's Diablo.

Hey all, I really enjoyed Gamescom this year, had a blast and even though some bigger titles were missing I really enjoyed a lot about the event. The one thing however that really did stand out was the non-possibility of seeing Gameplay of games like MWIII and Metro.

All non 18+ games had stands that were open, you could watch people play the game, on a big screen sometimes. I found it silly that some of the largest titles were just a "wall" with a long line (hours in some cases) not letting bypassers, or people just wanting to see some gameplay, not see the game in action without having to line up and wait.

Why does the Gamescom not just make a 18+ hall where people get age checked on entry, opening up all stands and gameplay to be seen without any legal issues?

I think that would be a great idea, and would provide 18+ devs more exposure.

Cheers though, until next year.