Gamescom 2023: bigger and better!

This year’s Gamescom was the largest and most diverse edition of the world’s largest video gaming event. Held from 23 to 27 August in Cologne, Gamescom 2023 attracted 320,000 visitors from over 100 countries, with another 20 million watching the fair’s Opening Night Live event online. ESA was there among the exhibitors with a stand in the jobs and careers hall that pulled in the crowds.

Building on the success of last year’s Gamescom, ESA was an even more visible presence this year. This included being centre stage at the official opening, where ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti returned the Gamescom flag that had flown with her on the International Space Station. Samantha was also interviewed as part of a livestream with video game developer Bethesda, whose new space exploration game Starfield was one of the highlights of the fair.

Gamescom attracts fans from every genre of video game you can imagine, plus a mix of content creators, game developers and publishers. This diverse audience provided a perfect opportunity for ESA to make the connection between Europe’s space ambitions and the world of video games.

Visitors to the ESA Zone had the chance to directly experience the link between the space technology used to train astronauts and video games with a hands-on virtual reality demo from ESA’s Human and Robotic Exploration team.

They were also able to chat with ESA’s Talent Acquisition team about space careers and job opportunities in the Agency at an exciting time when ESA is recruiting more than 300 new colleagues in order to support European space missions.

ESA’s Branding and Partnerships Office were also busy in the ESA Zone, meeting established partners and new contacts to discuss future video game projects and collaborations. For game developers and publishers who discovered ESA for the first time, these meetings were an opportunity to learn about the range of resources available from the Agency, including space imagery, models, data, access to space experts and filming locations.

There was also exciting news from game developer Auroch Digital, who announced the continuation of its successful partnership with ESA for new game Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life.

The excitement generated by Gamescom on social media also amplified ESA’s presence, as did a visit by STEM and tech influencer Mabel Ochebiri, who dropped by the ESA Zone to find out more about space and games.

This year ESA really upped its game at Gamescom, with the teams working closely together to raise the Agency’s profile and reach an even wider audience. ESA’s head of Branding and Partnerships Emmet Fletcher reflected on the success of Gamescom 2023: “Gamescom was incredibly successful all round for ESA, helping us to cement existing partnerships and to forge valuable new relationships within the video games industry.”