It seems as if the pandemic is slowly making its way towards the endgame. In December 2021, The Game Awards staff made the decision to do an in-person event, marking one of the first major events anywhere to do so in the past 2 years. The event was a pretty big success all things considered, as the then rise of the Omicron variant was causing some hesitation towards meeting in-person. Now, Gamescom has announced its return in August 2022 with dates and the news that it will be returning to an in-person show, as well as continuing to host a digital component. The show will also play host towards Gamescom's first "climate-friendly" event.

Held in Cologne, Germany, Gamescom is the world's largest gaming expo, even eclipsing the on-life-support E3. The show brings journalists, content creators, trade visitors and the public together for four days of gaming goodness. As is tradition, 2022's show will kick off with its Opening Night Live segment hosted by Game Awards guru Geoff Keighley: a 2-hour gaming news extravaganza that will bring world premieres and updates for existing titles. As the world keeps a wary eye on the ever-changing COVID-19 guidelines, Gamescom is keeping guests safe with digital queue management, limited ticket sales, and wider aisles in the halls of the convention center.

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This year's show will take place from August 24-28 and will also include a digital component similar to last year's Gamescom. Interactive quests will be making their return on the Gamescom Now website, with these activities unlocking specific rewards from certain exhibitors. 2021's show was supposed to adopt this same sort of hybrid model but had to instead go all-digital due to an uptick in coronavirus cases around the globe. If this model is successful, it is likely Gamescom will continue with it well into the future beyond the pandemic.

gamescom 2021 opening night live

Gamescom has also announced that this year's show will be its first "climate-friendly" event by offsetting all emissions. This will be achieved through the use of free public transport tickets while simultaneously raising money for the Gamescom Forest reforestation project. Of course, everyone viewing at home will also be contributing to this climate-friendly event and can donate to the project at any time on Gamescom's website.

In other gaming expo-related news, this year's E3 will once again be going fully digital due to the ongoing pandemic. However, little news has been shared on the event as of this writing. Each year the gaming expo has been diminishing in size not just with its crowds but its publishers as well. Last year's show was a haphazard amalgamation of what some saw as unnecessary publishers presentations as well as a web portal that didn't offer much to consumers. It will be interesting to see what the E3 organizers decide to do with 2022's show.

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Source: VentureBeat