As every year, gamescom – the largest gaming event in the world – opened its doors in Cologne, Germany, on Wednesday, August 22nd.
Every year, more and more international and well-known companies decide to appear as exhibitors at gamescom. In 2018 a new record was set regarding the numbers of exhibitors and it is to be expected that a new record regarding visitors will be set as well.With more than 2.2 billion gamers around the globe, the games industry has been the biggest player in the entertainment sector since 2016. To speak in numbers: in 2018, there is an expected overall revenue of $137.9 billion.
Testbirds @ gamescom 2018
So, Testbirds paid the #heartofgaming a visit to get in touch with the newest games, developers, and gaming innovations. Furthermore, we went to Cologne to show the games developers community how we, as the testing expert, can help them optimise their products to guarantee high level gaming pleasure for their customers. To make sure that a game is as satisfying and fun as possible, one has to be aware of the current trends, and in 2018 one of the most important facts is that games are being played literally everywhere. As a consequence, mobile gaming has outpaced desktop games for the first time.
Trending: cross device & cross play
Cross device and cross play functionalities, as well as cloud gaming, are the trending topics this year because the gaming community now expects to have their favourite games available not only on PC or console, but also on mobile devices.Another important topic is Virtual Reality (VR) – VR combined with mixed and augmented reality is still trending as you can see in our short clip on ICAROS which shows a mixture of VR gaming and connected fitness device.If you want to know more, watch the video with live impressions from #gamescom below.
Hot or not? gamescom favorites
Besides the most important trends there are, as expected, a lot of franchise updates like FIFA 19, Battlefield 5, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and long expected blockbusters like the German Blue Byte production Anno 1800 which could be a “pearl” for the German video gaming industry.Blue Byte also announced a relaunch of their franchise The Settlers which could also help in growing the German gaming sector.
In the #heartoftestbirds quality is a constant – so let’s see if the industry learned from its crowd and finally invested more time and money into the quality assurance of their games before games are finally released. Testbirds are also gaming birds, so let’s combine testing and playing and thereby help games developers to create the ultimate gaming experience for their customers.
