Gamescom and Gamescom Dev are almost here, running from August 23–30 in Cologne. But with costs soaring and online events having long provided a viable alternative to physical shows for promotion, how is the industry using these opportunities, and why? James Batchelor speaks to publishers and developers to find out.

In addition, Blaze Entertainment CEO Andrew Byatt speaks to Patrick Garratt about Evercade's incoming Nexus retro handheld, belief in the value of physical media, and "Evercade 2".

To finish, there's an assessment of Roblox's development problem in Social Commentary and news of Helldivers 2 appearing on PS Plus in Extra. Managed Democracy calls for aid. The galaxy won't rid itself of alien scum, you know.

The approach of Gamescom has tens of thousands of industry professionals preparing for another busy week in Cologne. For those unable to attend, as with any physical event, there is often a sense of FOMO – but how vital is attending physical events in today's videogame industry? 

At a time when digital showcases, online campaigns and Steam events are more abundant than ever, developers and publishers are able to reach millions of people with minimal expenses compared to physically exhibiting, or even visiting, a trade or consumer show.  

Raw Fury CMO Susie McBeth says the rise of digital events has "moved the goalposts, and the industry has had to adapt." 

"If we’re going ahead with a physical event, it has to be with purpose," she points out. "There has to be a genuine benefit beyond just showing up. We have to create something memorable. As an indie publisher, we don’t have infinite resources, so we do have to be selective. But we also know that part of building a great reputation is being visible at key moments." 

McBeth emphasises that physical events are still valuable for the publisher, but "for different reasons than in the past." A key constant is the opportunity to create connections and moments that are impossible to replicate digitally. 

"Trade shows are hugely important for bringing out the human side of businesses," McBeth continues. "Being in the same place as developers, platform holders, media, creators and other industry partners brings opportunities for conversations that may have taken months of emails to arrange. And, of course, it’s crucial to get a feel for what is moving the industry forward. 

"Consumer events are great for discoverability, but equally real-time feedback. It’s much more revealing than a digital survey or feedback form. We can talk directly to players about what they feel, what they did or didn't enjoy, what they remember from a session. It’s less about the number of interactions and more about the quality." 

Direct feedback is key to an event's appeal for developers, too. Ant Workshop managing director Tony Gowland observes that "nothing compares to standing back and watching players grapple with your game." 

"Steam reviews, betas, YouTube videos, etc – nothing lets you get the same combination of seeing what areas folks are struggling with, what they're enjoying, and also finding mountains of bugs as they play in unexpected ways," he says. "In a single day at something like Rezzed, you could watch dozens of people playing your game and that was – and still is – invaluable." 

He continues: "You also had press and streamers attending and checking out everything on the floor, and it was a great way to get a bunch of interviews and face-to-face time with those folks. When you're emailing these people about the game later in development, you have a real in-person connection to give you a bit more chance of being picked up. You also had platform teams and publishers doing the same, which again was useful for the same reasons if you were looking for funding and partners."

However, Gowland reports that the few remaining physical events are "too costly for what you get" – especially for indies. While Ant Workshop was able to secure space at the Gamescom Indie Arena Booth a few years ago – a relatively affordable way to attend the show itself – the overall cost rose significantly when factoring in flights and accommodation. 

"These days we get our playtesting by attending local-scale events that are free to show at. These are usually only an evening or a single day, but still with good footfall. They don’t have Steam events, or press and platform holders attending, so you need to mix in different activities specifically for those." 

For game scouts, such as Fireshine Games' Kerryn Frean, physical events can be instrumental in discovering new games to sign, but the value of any event is judged on a case-by-base basis. The easiest measurement, she says, is whether you met a developer that you later signed up to a partnership. 

"First, developers have to come up to you, which isn't as straightforward as just showing up," Frean says. "Making appearances means that my network has grown, which means that my presence becomes better known amongst developers, so more people come up to me, which stacks up the probability of being introduced to a viable project. This is an important output from going to physical events that is hard to ultimately quantify. 

"This isn't to say anything glamorous about the 'presence of my name' here, to be clear. Fireshine Games is what is known to developers, but I have aimed to build a reputation for being easy to approach. That has allowed me to be less of an entity associated with Fireshine and more of a professional that is known for their persona and – hopefully – welcoming nature." 

Frean acknowledges that game scouting can be conducted remotely via video calls, especially if developers are unable to travel. While "nothing matches meeting them in person," having both physical and online meetings as an option is imperative. 

"I've had some developers tell me they wouldn't sign with a publisher they hadn't met in person, and I have signed developers I have only ever spoken with on calls," she continues.  

"As I've continued to go to events and work with their organisers, their importance in my day-to-day work has grown. Each event is ultimately a reflection of the energy that is put into them, so as I'm given more opportunities to be involved, I get more success from going to them."

Sony thrust the subject of physical videogame media to the fore last month by announcing that all PlayStation disc production will cease in January 2028. While serious consternation met the move, sales figures show clearly that contemporary retail habits have become resolutely digital, with the latest first-quarter financial releases from Square Enix and Capcom reporting that, of all sales for the period, 93.3 per cent and 90.1 per cent respectively were digital. Despite resistance, physical is on the way out. 

But not for everyone. 

Evercade, the Blaze Entertainment retro hardware line originally launched as a handheld in 2020, is a physical-only product based on cartridges stacked with licensed ROMs. The brand has since extended to a more traditional console offering, smaller Game Boy-style handhelds and bartop arcade units, with Nexus, the first Evercade handheld to feature twin sticks, releasing in October. If Evercade sounds buoyant, that's because it is. 

"I think we must be hitting two million cartridges soon, if we haven't already," Blaze CEO Andrew Byatt tells Knowledge. "That'll be the next announcement." 

Don't expect any hardware figures any time soon, though: "We don't give people usernames and accounts and all that stuff, because you're taking people away from what it used to be like. That means someone can buy three of our consoles, or ten, and we wouldn't know whether it was one person or ten. So we focus more on cartridge sales to see roughly how big the installed base is." 

The good old days 

It's this sense of nostalgia that underpins the entire Evercade concept. 

"The intention is to bring back the original experience of buying and owning games, of opening the box and smelling the manual and blowing on the connector, all that kind of stuff," Byatt says. Collecting limited-edition items, a key part of all physical media, also plays a powerful role in making Evercade the success it's become. What started off as numbered cartridges in the early days of Evercade has turned into special-edition cartridge releases and even limited-run consoles. Nexus will have a Doom special edition, limited to 3,000 units. If you're thinking of grabbing one, forget it. Collectors are now wise to Evercade's success, and releasing special cartridges and hardware for games as notable as Doom certainly works: "They sell really, really well, and really quickly."

An appetite for physical media still exists, then, especially in the retro world. Evercade is performing so well, in fact, that Blaze is now talking about the next generation of its console strategy. All the hardware released so far is based on the same technology, which Byatt calls "Evercade 1". All Evercade consoles released to date play the same cartridges, of which there are now more than 100. Nexus is an Evercade 1 device, and includes features users have been requesting based on previous iterations, such as a larger screen and Bluetooth connectivity for headphones. However, a full upgrade appears to be on the cards. 

Nexus is "probably coming towards the pinnacle of Evercade 1," says Byatt. "But, yeah, the plan is Evercade 2, and I think at some point that'll be a reality. That will be a new cartridge format, which is bigger capacity… [Evercade] 2 would be much more powerful." 

Byatt also confirms that next-generation hardware will be backwards compatible with Evercade 1 cartridges. 

Evercade be nimble 

"Much more powerful" is not a popular sentiment in today's hardware manufacturing market. Thanks to the AI industry's insatiable need for memory and storage, costs related to high-end game hardware have rocketed in the past two years. While Evercade has been affected, Byatt brought Evercade's hardware contracts forward to lock margins for 2026 and has done the same for cartridges for 2027. Size, in this instance, matters. 

"We're not one of the big boys, which means we can't negotiate huge contracts," he says. "But at the same time, it makes us quite nimble and we can take opportunities to grab stock. You know, 'Oh, there's 20,000 units over there – we'll have that.' It does help that you're not having to buy millions and millions of units." 

All of which indicates Evercade's success is based on a real, underserved market, one that companies such as Sony appear to be dumping because its presence on financial spreadsheets is dropping to single percentage digits. Traditional game companies ending their relationship with physical media only plays to Evercade's advantage. 

"We have seen an uptick on sales," Byatt says. "But, more importantly for us, it's just making people know we exist and communicating what we are, what we're not, and what our values are, how we're trying to build this up to be something special – to be an experience people like and enjoy." 

He adds: "With the Sony announcement and the way things are going, we're just going to stubbornly say that we are the physical opportunity. We're going to keep owning physical in a different way and build that up. That's a really important thing for us. We don't believe physical has no value."

SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Highlights from industry chat channels

When 24 Entertainment set out to explore Tang-dynasty-era China through the medium of a particularly violent action game, the Hangzhou-based studio wanted to set it apart from the great many examples of the form that involve people smacking other people in the face.  

In the studio's forthcoming Blood Message, "you don’t go into ten soldiers and just kick their asses," creative director Xingyan Gu tells us. "We want players to take every fight as a life-or-death fight. You don't do those fancy movie moves. It's dirty. You have to struggle, and a surprise can happen in every blow." 

If you caught the demo video from Blood Message's Summer Game Fest showing, you will have seen some of this play out. In Edge 427, out now, we take a closer look at the project, discussing its representation of Chinese history, how it incorporates influences from western productions, its use of continuous shots, and lots more.     

Elsewhere, we investigate the unstoppable rise of the detective game, consider the secret lives of NPCs, and talk to Hangar 13 to discover how it created Mafia: The Old Country. We also meet with French developer DigiXart for this issue's Studio Profile, and revisit Tenchu: Stealth Assassins for Time Extend.  

The Blood Of Dawnwalker, Out Of Words and Hunger are among the forthcoming releases previewed in Hype, while Big Walk, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and Splatoon Raiders open this issue's review section. Also, naturally, Steven Poole has a run at leading the Reform Party in Trigger Happy.  

Edge 427 is available from UK retailers now and online here.

We'll be back next week. In the meantime, don't forget to share your feedback with us by email ([email protected]), and follow us via Bluesky and LinkedIn.