Dialect at Gamescom 2023 - what caught our eye?
Gamescom had a point to prove this year. While E3 bows out indefinitely in 2023, having once been the single biggest date on the games industry’s calendar, the Cologne conference was as bustling as ever. It’s making a compelling case that yes, gathering en masse in the physical world to celebrate upcoming gaming innovations is still a great idea, even in the post-COVID, digital showcase age.
Dialect’s crack team of hand-shakers and German cuisine-samplers were among the throng this year, and they have some thoughts to impart. Please excuse their more leftfield ideas, they’ve been running on granola bars and adrenaline all week.
Best new game reveal
Little Nightmares 3
Little Nightmares 3 gameplay
Honourable mentions are certainly due for slapstick platformer Thank Goodness You’re Here! and the return of Delta Force, but it’s Supermassive’s foreboding adventure Little Nightmares 3 that wins Dialect’s best reveal.
Business development manager Nick says: “I haven’t played the previous games, but I’ve always been interested in them, especially the art style. So for me, this third game is encouragement for me to get started on the series.”
Live service game fatigue is at peak levels right now, so it’s great to see a traditional story-led experience making such an impact.
The story in question once again focuses on facing childhood fears, but don’t worry, you can play in co-op with someone brave if that sounds a bit much.
Attention grabbing booth
Netflix
Squid Game section of Netflix booth
We get the trailers back here at home, and we get the Instagram pics of pork knuckles and fine German beers. But what we don’t get a sense of at Gamescom are how impressive and eye-catching the physical installations can be when you’re walking past them at ground level.
Sega’s booth was a close second, but this year’s Netflix booth grabbed Dialect’s attention most effectively.
Here’s Nick again: “In terms of floor space, it was definitely the biggest. It was really cool that they arranged the floor layout into different sections for different shows - Stranger Things, Wednesday, Squid Game, The Witcher. And they had cosplayers around for each show. The Stranger Things section was also giving away slices of pizza, and no one else was doing that!”
The marketing lesson: IPs grab attention better than brands, and free pizza is the ultimate trump card. Note that Nick didn’t even specify whether said pizza contained pineapple - it’s that alluring.
Most exciting tech innovation
EVA - Esports Virtual Arenas
EVA booth, via @evagg_fr on Instagram
Mainstream gamers continue to tread with caution around VR, but the sector’s white-hot with innovation to smooth the conversion journey, and EVA’s impressive play space at Gamescom this year demonstrated that amply.
EVA creates a large-scale space for shooters so that VR gamers can move freely and fully immerse in a combat environment. So far their locations extend across France and Belgium.
Nick describes stumbling into “a VR FPS arena where everyone was moving around a space with plastic guns and VR headsets in a team deathmatch” one day. Imagine his delight and confusion, the poor lad. He probably only wanted some more of that Stranger Things pizza.
First game you’ll wish list when you get home
REKA
REKA gameplay
There was no shortage of heavy hitters this year - the imminently arriving Starfield took a star turn, Alan Wake 2 showed us how Remedy continues to evolve the definition of interactive storytelling, Forza Motorsport 8 is a day one, and Cyberpunk’s Phantom Liberty expansion is just the excuse we needed to start skulking around Night City again. But just out of the spotlight, you’d find games like REKA.
Centring on the Slavic folkloric figure Baba Yaga and taking place in gorgeous woodlands where Geralt of Rivia would feel immediately at home, it’s basically a witch-sim. You play the witch, gathering resources from the open world around you, building your witchy abode and furnishing it, and at some point there’s a moving cottage on giant chicken legs involved. It’s not like we’re going to forget about Starfield at this point - REKA goes straight on the wish list.
Age of Empires IV gameplay
Surprise of the show
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition comes to Xbox consoles
Age of Empires. The PC-est of propositions, harking back to the glory days of RTS games when big beige boxes ruled the land. Historically neither the franchise nor the genre have found an easy road to consoles, but Microsoft’s putting its heft behind an Xbox console release of Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition. It’s a move that not many saw coming before Gamescom 2023.
Nick, from the showfloor, noted that this was his surprise of the whole conference, “simply because the thought of AoE on console just seems wrong!” It’s up to Microsoft to prove him wrong.
