A gamescom sell-out is a positive sign for the future

This confidence appears generously spread across the event itself. Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night - an event that’s grown into one of the world’s biggest showcases of new trailers and reveals now even attracts a sell-out audience who buy tickets separate to their own gamescom admission.  From what we already know, we’ll have appearances from Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, the new Witcher 3: Wild Hunt DLC and there’s continued rumours of a major, yet previously unannounced reveal from XBOX - with everything from Banjo Kazooie, Starcraft and Wolfenstein all being ruled out by those taking a guess at what it might be. Thankfully, that still leaves Microsoft with a considerable stack of franchises to plunder.

On the showfloor itself, it sounds like plenty is being spent on charming the visiting crowds. Microsoft is said to be running 140 XBOX stations and hands-on time with Gears of War: E-Day, Metro 2039 and loads more.  The whole idea of a showfloor might feel prehistoric to many, but all of those spending big on presenting at gamescom are betting on the idea that a controller in the hand beats watching yet another cinematic reveal.  As someone increasingly desensitised to trailers dressed up as gameplay, I’m inclined to agree, to the extent that this year I’m looking forward to joining the hoards of gamers powered by currywurst and energy drinks on the showfloor.

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Another early gamescom surprise which shows the mainstream love of gaming is the IKEA and XBOX collaboration. An actual furniture line, complete with a thumbstick stool and a D-PAD cushion to mark 25 years of XBOX is gloriously daft. Stuff like this has existed in Japan for decades, so I’m definitely getting involved and filling my games room with more glorious tat.

As I break in my comfiest shoes for tens of thousands of steps a day, I’m optimistic, curious and excited about my trip to gamescom, and that’s before we’ve even got the pioneering ‘extended look’ at GTA VI from Netflix next week. Let’s just hope that particular reveal doesn’t spread its shadow too far over Cologne - because gamers need to get excited about what’s coming after November.

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FAQ: How do videogame marketing agencies measure success?

The most common KPIs which permeate all campaigns are wishlists, pre-orders and purchases. Additional KPIs to determine success depend on your objectives. For top-level, or awareness marketing campaigns, Bastion will use KPIs such as reach, impressions, views, social media follower growth, average watch time and others. For consideration marketing, we may opt for click-through-rate, view-through-rate, traffic to product pages. Then of course we have paid marketing focused KPIs such as cost-per-acquisition (CPA), cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-mille (CPM) and others. No matter your objective, or level of knowledge around marketing return-on-investment (ROI), Bastion is here to support and deliver success for your team.