I always wanted to visit the world’s biggest game fairs – Gamescom 2019. Like my kids, I’m a big fan of games and this time I could not miss it again. Today I’m going to share with you some pictures and videos from this event.

First of all, let me explain what is Gamescom? It’s the worlds biggest games fair trades. Following statistics provided by the organizer, 2019 edition brought 1 153 companies to present their products on the 218 000 square meters in the Cologne exhibition halls to 373 000 visitors from over 100 countries. Sounds big, right?

Arrival to Gamescom 2019

Because we had to travel around 1000 km to get to the Cologne, we took the opportunity of being in Germany and we visited on the way Legoland Deutschland. Traveling by car is the best option while staying in Germany. They have a great network of highways all over the country. We planned to stay in Duesseldorf and travel each day by train to Cologne.

Why did we do like that? Because of the crazy number of visitors, most of the hotels in Cologne and surrounding towns were already fully booked and prices reached the sky.

As it turned out, staying in Duesseldorf was a great choice. Each day in the morning it took us up to 45 minutes to get to the Koeln Messe Deutz station – straight to the place where the fair took place. What’s important – together with Gamescom tickets we received public transport tickets allowing us to get there for free using whatever we want: bus, tram, train within the area of Rhein Ruhr. Additionally, Duesseldorf is a great city with lots of attractions (I will write some more about it at the end of this article).

Before we will move forward, here is my video from the event on my YouTube channel:

Our First Day at Gamescom 2019

We had booked online vouchers for tickets. It was not the real ticket but – to get the real one we had to register at the fair trade counter. Next, just after the entrance, we had to queue for the age verification band.

The color of your band indicates which areas you are allowed to enter and which not. All the games and presentations rated as violent or improper for kids were separated from public access. They were really serious about that and kids had no chance to see any hardcore stuff.

Our bands allowed us to enter just the public areas because my daughter did not receive any band – that categorized her below the lowest age threshold. I was not aware of this bands stuff age verification stuff before arrival to Gamescom 2019. My first thought was that we will miss a lot from the event. But as it turned out, I was wrong and we had a great time there.

Koelnmesse – Gamescom headquarters 🙂

Registration for the age verification bands

Four levels of age verification:

no band – less than 12 years

green band – 12 years and above

blue band – 16 years and above

red band – 18 and above

Our configuration: none, green and I had a red band

The queue for the game Steel Circus

Steel Circus

Retro Area

Gamescom 2019 was huge. It took us some time before we could easily navigate among all halls. There were three types of halls:

Game developers expositions,

Public access (family/retro/Indie games) areas,

Shopping areas

It’s worth to mention a few words about Retro Area. That was our favorite place on Gamescom 2019. In Retro Area you could find hundreds of old hardware and software gaming stuff. If names like Spectrum, Commodore, Jaguar, Amiga or Atari rings the bell, then you know what I mean. I could show my kids the first computer in my life – it was Atari 65XE/XL. This one at the Gamescom was in really good condition, still working and kids could play a while on that!

OMG – old Atari!!!

My first computer ever!

Cosplay from Shadow of The Beast

Space Invaders

Retro area was the best!

Hello Mr. Ironman

Borderlands 3

A lot of cool graphics around

Gamescom 2019 Was One of The Most Crowded Trade Fairs I’ve Ever Seen

I expected thousands of visitors as I’m often participating in trade fairs but Gamescom 2019 exceeded my expectations. It was really easy to get lost, especially for small kids. In fact, I started to worry about my daughter. She does not speak English and in case she gets lost it would be impossible for her to explain to anybody what is going on… That was scary. I had to figure something out quickly.

According to the fair organizer this year 31 300 people visited Gamescom 2019

It was really crowdy

Getting lost in the crowd could bring a lot of troubles

I took a piece of paper and wrote a short message in English explaining who is she and what is my contact number. I gave that to her and conducted a short training session to explain what she has to do with that.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to test this solution.

Emergency message – Paulina had this in her pocket all the time

All restricted content was hidden behind walls and you had to wait in the lines. Kids would not see anything that was inappropriate for them

The longest waiting line – Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 enjoyed the greatest interest of the audience. CD Projekt RED is currently one of the best game developers in the world what makes us proud of that as it’s the polish company.

The Gang on the Gamescom 2019

COD MW – I’m waiting for that 🙂

Cosplay at Gamescom 2019

Next cool thing on Gamescom 2019 was the Cosplay Village. Kids had really great fun posing to photos with their favorite heroes like Spiderman or Deadpool. Some of the costumes were really realistic.

The best Spiderman’s cosplay on Gamescom 2019





Great Deadpool’s Cosplay



Driving simulator with 6 axis movements

It’s time to say goodbye

Now we’re all looking forward to Gamescom 2020 which will take place from 26 to 29 August 2020.

Cologne Cathedral

Taking just one train stop further from Messe Deutz you will get to the Central Station of Cologne. Few meters from the main entrance to the station you will see the Cologne Cathedral. It’s one of the World’s Heritage Site visited by 20 000 people a day. I just had to take the opportunity to show my kids this beautiful monumental church.

Cathedral is magnificent

The incredible, spacious interior of the cathedral

Cathedral’s stained-glass windows are amazing

Street art in front of Cathedral

Cologne – main station

Duesseldorf

As we had our accommodation in Duesseldorf, we booked one day to walk around the city. The plan was to first catch some great views from Rhein Tower and then walk around the downtown.

Check my video from Duesseldorf

The Rhein Tower was great, you can see the panorama of the city from 168 meters high viewpoint.

Rhein Tower

Rhein Tower view point is at 168 meters

View on Duesseldorf from 168 meters

Duesseldorf Old Town

Duesseldorf Old Town

Duesseldorf Old Town

Duesseldorf Old Town





We had lunch in Louisiana – good food and service

Nice architecture

The last point which we wanted to see was Königsallee – the urban boulevard in Duesseldorf. We had a luck as at that day Königsallee was full of street food booths because of the Street Food Festival.

Street Food Festival

Unfortunately, we were after lunch

Hundreds of good looking, good smelling dishes across 1000 meters of Königsallee

Yummy

TLDR – Gamescom 2019 in a Nutshell

The last question should sound like – was it worth? And I must reply – Yes. Gamescom is the place where you can meet the gaming community – freaks like you. You can try the latest games, see some eSports events live, watch the best trailers. That’s why we had a really good time there.

If you want to take your kids for such a trip, then don’t forget about:

Age restrictions – That could be disappointing if the game you wanted to see is not available as your kids are below allowed age limits.

– That could be disappointing if the game you wanted to see is not available as your kids are below allowed age limits. Gamescom is a crowded place – if your kids are young and do not speak the local language, try to figure out an emergency plan in case of getting lost in the crowd.

– if your kids are young and do not speak the local language, try to figure out an emergency plan in case of getting lost in the crowd. Visit local cities – Cologne and Duesseldorf are really cool places. It’s worth to book an additional two days to walk around a little bit.

See you next year at Gamescom 2020!

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Photos and featured image: Lucas