GamesCom hailed as world's largest games trade event
Quarter of a million visitors in four days
Cologne played host to the newest games convention last week, taking the torch from the Leipzig event and running with it - very fast, it seems.
GamesCom apparently welcomed over 245,000 visitors through the venue doors during the four day expo (split into two press days and two days open to the public), prompting organisers to (quite reasonably) hail the event as the world's largest games industry convention.
"The GamesCom premiere ran splendidly," Koelnmesse MD Oliver Kuhrt on the official website. "We are very happy with the enthusiastic response of both exhibitors and visitors. This has established GamesCom as a leading trade fair straight away."
Exhibitors numbered 458 from across 31 different countries, with 17,000 trade visitors and 4000 members of the media - including Pocket Gamer's own Chris James and Fraser MacInnes.
"It was really busy, but it actually felt less crowded due to the Koelnmesse being much better equipped to deal with an event of that scale than Leipzig," Fraser explains. "Better toilets, too."
Given the immediacy of GamesCom's success, and the fact that 90 per cent of the trade visitors declared they would be attending next year, it's no surprise that it's already been set for 18-22 August, 2010.
