Essentially the E3 of Europe, the annual Gamescom conference delivers big game announcements and exciting new trailers out of Cologne, Germany every summer. Gamescom 2019 will be no different, promising new showcases from Google, Nintendo and Xbox as well as a special Opening Night Live ceremony hosted by Geoff Keighley.
Here's a recap of all the big Gamescom 2019 events.
Gamescom 2019 highlights
If you want to get right to the good stuff, here are the biggest announcements of Gamescom so far:
- A ton of indies are coming to Nintendo Switch, including Ori and the Blind Forest, Superhot and the Hotline Miami Collection.
- Google revealed some new games coming to the Stadia lineup, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Orcs Must Die! 3.
- We got a new trailer and gameplay reveal for Death Stranding, which now has Geoff Keighley in it? Yeah, we're still confused.
- We got our first look at Gears 5's Horde mode, which will have unique, Overwatch-style abilities for each character. Halo Reach's Kat and Emile will also be playable.
- PS4 to Xbox crossplay is coming to PUBG this fall.
Nintendo Indie World
Nintendo kicked off Gamescom in a big way with its Indie World showcase, which revealed some exciting smaller games coming to the Nintendo Switch soon. The big bombshell is that Microsoft’s Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition is coming to Switch, but Nintendo fans are also getting indie megahits Superhot as well as the Hotline Miami Collection, both of which are available today. Here’s the entire Indie World stream if you missed it:
Inside Xbox
Xbox delivered new looks at games such as Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Greedfall. We saw the first-ever gameplay of Gears 5's Horde Mode, and Microsoft revealed that Halo: Reach's Kat and Emile are coming to the game as playable characters. We also got a look at Season 4 of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which will soon gain cross-play with the PS4 version of the game, and NBA 2K20, which will feature Idris Elba in its career mode.
Check out the replay below for all of Microsoft's big announcements.
Google Stadia Connect
Google revealed some new games coming to its Stadia cloud service this fall, including Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs Legion and Borderlands 3. You can check out the full recap below.
Opening Night Live
The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley kicked off the first evening of Gamescom with a slew of trailers and world premiers. Highlights include Comanche, a remake of the 2001 classic, Kerbal Space Program 2, Disintegration, a new RTS/shooter hybrid from the co-creator of Halo, and Erica, an intriguing live-action narrative game that's out today.
But the main event was Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, as we saw a new cinematic trailer and some fresh gameplay of the upcoming, ever-mysterious PS4 exclusive. We now know that Norman Reedus' Sam Bridges can, um, relieve himself in the open field, and learned a bit more about Guillermo Del Toro's Deadman as well as the purpose of those babies-in-jars. Oh, and Keighley himself is in the game now, because of course he is.
