Gamescom Asia: We want to give Southeast Asian developers a platform to shine
Gamescom is continuing on its mission to build a global brand of international events, with its Asian show due to take place in Singapore this October.
Between a very successful inaugural Gamescom Latam earlier this year, the original trade show returning to Cologne in just a few weeks, and Gamescom Asia from October 17 to 20, 2024 will mark the first year with all three events taking place in full force.
While Gamescom parent Koelnmesse only acts as co-organiser for the Latam edition, it is fully behind Gamescom Asia, with project director Daria La Valle telling us that the event wants to be a platform for Southeast Asia "to come together."
La Valle has worked for Koelnmesse Singapore for the past decade, and has lived in the city-state for 15 years. She started working on Gamescom Asia in 2019 and so experienced the arduous journey leading to this 2024 edition.
COVID-19 hit the year the event was due to debut, with Gamescom Asia then delayed to 2021.
"It was a rough time, if I have to be honest," La Valle laughs when asked about how it was to experience this behind the scenes. "I remember by the time COVID hit in February 2020, we had already sold half of the show floor, we had several publishers on board, it looked really promising, still with eight months to go to the show in October 2020.
"Then we all know what happened: the pandemic hit. We had to press the brake really hard and like many other event organisers we decided to pivot online. Of course we had an advantage being in Singapore because the internet infrastructure is really good here. But at the same time, we didn't want our very first Gamescom Asia to be only online."
Koelnmesse also put together a series of webinars at the time, under the name Gamescom Asia's Games Market Bootcamp, with each session delving into a single Southeast Asia market, plus Australia and India.
"Because we realised that there were a lot of people in the gaming industry outside our markets who didn't really know what was going on," La
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