More GAMESCom Details

Following the announcement earlier in the week that GAMESCom will be replacing the Leipzig Games Convention in 2009, GamesIndustry.biz spoke with general manager of the event Olaf Wolters to discuss the conference in more detail.

You mentioned at the press conference that you estimate growth from the move from Leipzig to Cologne - do you have specific numbers?

Our target is a double figure growth rate. In this region there is a lot of potential, which we hope to maximise. But mainly it was a strategic decision that is driven by a lot of different factors.

We have to wait for the press conference from Messe Leipzig and hold more talks, but especially in the trade visitor area we will match our target easily. Just the new time period in September could be a little problem, because there will be no holidays in Germany. That's why we can't say specific numbers.

You have called GAMESCom the leading European convention and compared the Games Convention to an regional event. How do you plan to reach leading status and make this a reality?

We will try to finalise more international media cooperation and through a direct connection to the publisher it makes it possible to emphasise the importance of the fair. We are also in contact with foreign associations to ensure their collaboration. All of these points are already marked down in conception and will be realised in a number of steps over time.

Did you speak with associations in other countries about the role as Europe's leading convention - is it a status that will be true throughout Europe?

Primarily it was German members of the companies who made that decision. Eventually we will have the biggest European fair located in Germany and so the German representatives have a big influence.

We had to make a decision about the future of the fair — we realised that we have to invest much more to keep it getting bigger and more important. One of the requirements for that was to become more and more European.

Because the other associations have not had much involvement in it, we consciously let the publishers make the decisions. We ourselves are moderating the whole event and providing the contact with the fair.

But it is still up to the publishers if they coming or not. The goal is to become more and more European - at the moment we are having an international party financed with national and regional budget - that has to change.

Are you trying to support the German industry, and improve its standing in Europe overall?

Yes, but we still have to keep in mind that for example the Tokyo Games Show, when compared to the German one, is much more complex. Such an international event cannot be staged with national and regional budgets.

Therefore 200-300 members from all over the world have to be brought in - all of that must be organized in Germany, and the German offices have to pay for that and in the future that should be remembered.

It's a little bit like soccer. When you want to play in the Champions League, you have to pay enough, to make everything ready for the competition. For two or three seasons you can do it with an older stadium or a weaker team, but if you want to stay in the competition you have to pay.

In the end such an event wouldn't be possible on a national scale, because the prices in Leipzig naturally rose over time.

Why only focus on Europe? Given that E3 has changed its format, and the Tokyo Games Show focuses almost purely on consoles, wouldn't it be better to aim for a world-leading role?

We are only the German association and so we first of all wanted to offer a fair to the German- speaking community. Now, the next step is to reach a European market, and we will see what happens after that.

We have to see how the development of the new location of the fair goes - the new location is much more attractive than before, and it could become important for the overseas visitors.

So we'll see how many overseas companies attend - right now we already have a lot of international guests but of course we are hoping that the number will increase.

But primarily for now we want to reach the European standard and maintain that it.

In view of better sales abroad do you think the location of the fair in Germany has a future?

Yes, of course, otherwise we wouldn't have done all that. But it's no secret that Germany isn't the biggest market.

Eventually Germany has got a lot of potential, which is exactly what we want to support. Besides that Germany has got the second biggest market, before France - we're about to lose that position but at the same time we have a position we can fight for and that is what we want to do.

In the press conference you mentioned the costs of the hotels, but what about the stands? Isn't the fair in Cologne too expensive for the publishers?

It was part of the deal that the prices for the stands will be the same as in 2007. That means that the publishers will have to pay even less then before. Cologne wants to show the exhibitors that they have the same or better conditions now than they had in Leipzig.

One of the key questions is who really made the decision - who wanted the move more, you or the publisher?

The contract with Leipzig ends in 2009, so we have to think together about the future of the German convention. Especially the German publishers had to decide what will happen after that, because they have to invest more money.

So first we asked our members to talk internally. At first the result was chaotic, but in the end the conclusion was that we had to move, to make the German fair more international. Without that need, we would have stayed in Leipzig.

Leipzig communicated the internationalisation too early. We had problems with their European leadership statements. For us the Games Convention was a regional affair. First we tried to slow them down, but that didn't help. Now, with the decision of our members and the move to Cologne the statement becomes true - that GAMESCom will be the leading European convention.

Electronic Arts has its German headquarters in Cologne - did that have any influence on the decision?

For them the location is coincidence. As an example some members from Frankfurt didn't want to have the convention in their local city, they wanted to see new growth from other cities. And besides that, Electronic Arts has just one vote in our council.

Was there a second choice?

The silver medal was for Munich.

So what happens next? Do you expect a conflict with Messe Leipzig?

First of all we want to have a successful Games Convention 2008. After that we will see what plans Messe Leipzig has for 2009. At the same time we will start preparing GAMESCom - we are very confident of success with that.

If Leipzig decides to run its own convention, we're pretty sure that most exhibitors will come with us to Cologne. If that happens I don't know what kind of content they want to present. The German publishers will support us and so press and retailers will join us, not the Games Convention.