Attendance Steady, Industry Presence Stronger at Gamescom

COLOGNE, Germany - Gamescom reaffirmed its position as Europe's leading video game conference with some 275,000 attendees storming the halls of the Cologne trade fair for the three-day event, which wrapped Sunday.

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The visitor figures are on par with last year's record numbers and suggest that while some areas of the gaming industry are suffering, there is still strong demand from the general public in Europe for the latest top releases.

More interesting was the increase in industry attendees at this year's Gamescom. Some 24,500 industry players, 14 percent more than last year, made the trip to Cologne between Aug.15-19. A few big players, including Microsoft and Nintendo, didn't set up shop at Gamescom this year but in total, 600 companies attended, an 8 percent jump on 2011. While L.A.'s E3 had more debuts of blockbuster titles, Gamescom also held its own in that department, with some 300 European or German new game premieres, a 10 percent increase on last year's event.

The games developer's conference, GDC Europe, which ran in the lead-up to Gamescom, was also well attended, with some 2,000 visitors.

Gamescom 2013 will be held between August 21-25.