Introduction
Gamescom in Cologne (Germany) is a new conference replacing Leipzig’s Games Convention and inheriting its status of biggest games trade show of Europe. Cologne has much better access and infrastructure than Leipzig, so this conference has a possibility to be even bigger than Games Convention ever was. Already more than 300 exhibitors registered (this year E3 expo has “only” 216, for example) with all big players and platform holders present. UPDATE: Holy fuck, updated numbers are 420! exhibitors from 30 countries. Is it biggest video game trade fair ever?
Schedule

The fun begins already at Monday, 17th with European Games Developers conference starting, featuring keynotes from David Cage (Quantic Dream) and Cevat Yerly (Crytek), as well as from Remedy, CCP and Gamesforge. The presentations from Peter Molyneux (Choice: The ultimate game mechanics) and Blitz Games (Games in Stereoscopic 3D) are also sure to attract attention.
The Gamescom starts officially only at 19th of August, but two big press conferences are scheduled to start one day earlier. First shots are fired by Electronic Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment:
Tuesday,18th August 2009
note: UK time is GMT+1 or CET-1, CET is a local time in Cologne
16:30– 17:30 CET (14:30– 15:30 GMT, 7:30-8:30 PDT (Los Angeles), 10:30-11:30 EDT (New York)) Electronic Arts Countdown
LIVE STREAM: EA Blog
18:30 – 20:30 CET (16:30– 18:30 GMT, 9:30-11:30 PDT, 12:30-14:30 EDT) Sony Computer Entertainment Countdown
LIVE BLOGS: Playstation Blog EU, Eurogamer
Official opening of the Gamescom and most press events are at Wednesday. Important events:
Wednesday,19th August 2009
10:00 CET (08:00 GMT, 01:00 PDT, 04:00 EDT) Microsoft Game Studios / Lionhead Press Briefing Countdown
LIVE BLOGS: Eurogamer
12:00 CET (10:00 GMT, 03:00 PDT, 06:00 EDT) KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT GmbH Press Conference
16:00 CET (14:00 GMT, 07:00 PDT, 10:00 EDT) NAMCO BANDAI &Partners Press Conference
17:00 CET (15:00 GMT, 08:00 PDT, 11:00 EDT) Bethesda Softworks Press Conference
Starting from Thursday, 20th August 2009, the exhibition is fully open for visitors. Take into account that there are many fesitivities planned outside of the exhibition halls, including gaming camps, cosplay world record attempt at Saturday, casemodding competition and parkour event, so visiting Cologne burn out your unprepared brains due to overload by extreme fun.
GAMESCOM LIVE STREAMS:
Gamescom Live Stream Press Day(Justin.tv)
Electronic Sports League: Germany Stream (from Wednesday on)