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There's also a huge battle over who will host it in 09 between Cologne and Leipzig
There's also a huge battle over who will host it in 09 between Cologne and Leipzig
August 25, 2008 - The German Games Convention has wrapped up in Germany, but the excitement is far from over. Behind the scenes, a battle is raging between the city of Leipzig, which currently hosts the show, and the city of Cologne, which would like to steal the world's second-largest game convention away from its smaller rival.
According to a report today in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the German equivalent of the Entertainment Software Association, the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware (BIU) is backing Cologne for next year's show, arguing that Leipzig's infrastructure will likely not support the growing show.
GC set its seventh consecutive attendance record this year with 203,000 visitors converging on Leipziger Messe. In a news release, GC organizers said the number of exhibitors had risen from 503 to 547, the area occupied from 112,500 to 115,000 square meters and 234 companies came to Leipzig from other countries, compared to 189 in 2007. So successful was the show that its organizers quickly announced the dates for next year's Leipzig-based show: August 19 to 23 2009.
But the City of Cologne has announced a timeline of its own: September 2009 for the Games Com Expo, according to the FAZ. Although the Games Convention is a bigger brand with a solid history of delivering in Lepzig (which owns the GC name), the backing of the BIU and the heavy marketing campaign put in motion by Cologne could shake things up.
During this year's show, Cologne was advertising its Games Com via airplane banners, display ads and even direct marketing. GC Guests staying at the Westin Leipzig reported receiving letters in their rooms asking them to stay at the chain's Cologne location next year. At the show, even game publishers seemed unclear when and where Europe's largest game convention would take place next year.
It's unlikely that the industry can support two large-scale summer German game conventions, so something will have to give before publishers and developers start making arrangements for next year's show, wherever it may be. For its part, Leipzig's city fathers are girding for war, planning to add four new convention-area hotels with 1,500 additional beds in preparation for 2009.
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