Today was the last day of the Leipzig Games Convention and again I had a lot of fun. We played the new Viva Pinata, Banjo-Kazooie, Spore, Mirror's Edge and some more Little Big Planet and Streetfighter (I'm still proud on my crazy finishing move that filled the whole screen with purple energy). We got Guild Wars t-shirts and witnessed an NCsoft costume contest with a lot of high quality GW and Tabula Rasa costumes. We also paid more attention to the hall with educational expositions and retro games. I played an extremely old game made by MB which worked on a white-on-black vector screen. The game was basically Geometry Wars and was already fun back then.
If you have read my older blog post or the news you know that this was supposed to be the last Games Convention in Leipzig. It will be moved to Cologne. Sony made me almost cry when they placed a huge crying sack boy (real water from a spring) on the Augustus square on a box with the text "Der Abschied fällt schwer" (meaning "It's hard to say goodbye"). Thank you Sony, that's kind! ;_;
Not so kind: Someone made posters with the text "Game Over - GamesCOM 2009 in Cologne" and placed them over our GC posters.
However since the GC was so successful this year (10% growth) it seems like there will be another GC here in 2009! According to market research only 10% of the exhibitors want that the fair leaves Leipzig. Unfortunately they are the big ones (EA). I can imagine that the fair in Cologne will be more expensive (for exhibitors and visitors - current tickets are 12 euro for a day) and that smaller publishers don't want to pay more.
Currently the GC is a cooperation between the Leipzig trade fair and an association of 12 publishers (out of hundred who attended this year's GC). The association decided this year to move the trade fair to Cologne. Everyone else isn't that happy and now it looks like there are going to be two events next years. The games convention in Leipzig and the GamesCOM in Cologne. Will that be a good thing? And how will the fight end? I don't know but my position is clear. Of course it is good for the people around Cologne to have the event there and I can understand that they are happy about it but we invented and established the convention and don't want it to be taken away for no real reason.
You know after almost 20 years German unity East and West Germany are still split. We get a lot lower wages here and many West Germans still have prejudices that the East Germans are lazy and don't do anything right. But once we establish something here it is taken away. No need to say that the GC with over 200 000 visitors has an impact on our economy. So I hope the best. Viva Games Convention!
And now I have finally time to read your posts. 