Gamescom moves next year's show dates as attendee numbers remain steady

A heads up for itinerant game developers: Gamescom has announced that next year’s show dates will fall on Tuesday August 22nd through Saturday August 26th, in Cologne, Germany. 

The move slightly shifts the show’s usual Wednesday - Sunday format of the last few years, so be sure to keep the dates in mind when planning your travel.

Gamescom announced the move in a press release, which also confirmed that attendance numbers remained steady year-over-year at 345,000 attendees, the same number that journeyed to Cologne in 2015. 

That’s good news for the conference, which took place this year against the shadow of increased turmoil in Europe and announced it would be increasing security in response to incidents of violence in both Germany and nearby France. 

Despite a ban on cosplay weapons and an urge to leave unneeded bags at home, Gamescom says that the new security measures went over “smoothly.”

The steady attendance rates do come with one notable decline however. Only 30,500 trade attendees attended the conference, which included anyone with a trade pass who attended on Gamescom business days or visited the business area. That's down 2,700 trade attendees from the year before.