Xbox One X couldn't save gamescom 2017 from weak media coverage
ICO Partners' analysis shows that this year's gamescom was "relatively underwhelming"
With this year's gamescom now in the rear-view mirror, ICO Partners has taken a look at the level of media coverage the event generated compared to previous years. As it turns out, even with hype for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox One X, gamescom 2017 saw the lowest level of media coverage since ICO Partners started tracking it in 2014. The number of articles tied to the event was just over 15,000.
"This year's edition of gamescom was relatively underwhelming when it comes to strong media beats (new games; high profile announcements; trailers on high expectation games) - and the media coverage would reflect this," said Thomas Bidaux.
The Xbox announcements were relatively tame by most accounts, but that didn't stop Microsoft from gaining the most media coverage out of this year's gamescom.
Bidaux continued, "Xbox One X is getting a lot of attention as the newest hardware to be available, and the games supporting it got their fair bit of coverage. Despite 2017 being weak overall, it is the best gamescom for Xbox since I started tracking media exposure. I find it very interesting that at the Cologne Messe, in the public area, the Xbox booth was actually quite small again. Microsoft seems to be careful with their spending there, at least for the second year in a row. Both Nintendo and Sony had vastly larger spaces, but even major publishers, or game studios had more space.
"Despite this being a good year, I can't help and wonder how much it could have been for Microsoft with a stronger line-up of reveals considering their performance with their half-hearted presence."
Interestingly, from a pure games standpoint, it was actually older titles that got the most attention. Both Final Fantasy XV and Overwatch saw the most coverage.
You can check out ICO's full analysis here.