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The reenactment program of the world’s most popular game event was surprisingly complete in comparison to the original editions before the pandemic break. Gamescom 2022 warmed up with the developer conference Devcom, launched as a business event on media day with the Opening Night Live Show, restarted the next day with the political discussion platform Gamescom Congress and continued the consumer show until the

Hybridity makes it possible to seamlessly slide from virtual into real presence and vice versa. My embarking at this year’s Devcom gave a perfect example: I started the developer’s conference on the virtual platform while sitting in a train to Cologne. Upon my arrival at the conference’s site, I had already followed this day’s lectures in the live video stream, and I now entered the lecture ro

After two virtual issues, SIGGRAPH went back to reality in Vancouver this year with a hybrid edition. The Vancouver event reconnected to the pre-pandemic traditional show formats. The online edition focused on the tracks with proven broadcast eligibility throughout the pandemic period. Especially, the immersive sections could refill the exposition and convention spaces with art installations, emerging tech demos and

Last year’s digital E3 accumulated a collection of streamed video game publications to conserve the annual presentation window through pandemic conditions. This year, the publisher streams spoke for themselves without the support of an overarching business platform. The promotion cycle could be maintained with a constant flow of game announcements for immediate summer release, previews for the holiday season

Berlin’s annual art festival for indie games and playful media came back in a triple package this year: lectures and workshops were accessible online in streams and on meeting platforms, the game exposition could be visited with your flamingo avatar in the multiplayer online world of A Maze Space, and an onsite event in Berlin featured a display of installations as well as a celebration party in real life. For

‘Fear of missing out’ is a habitual feeling at the annual Game Developer Conference, with all the many parallel tracks of exciting topics. But this year’s GDC was especially fearful due to the scheduling in a hybrid format. After last year’s digital edition, GDC 2022 went back to normal – somehow – by maintaining digital accessibility – somehow. Portal jumps between different

The Metaverse trope continues to keep online media conventions busy with mapping uncharted territories that lay mysteriously hidden beyond cryptic layers of clouds – mostly tag clouds, actually. The Digital Entertainment Week in Los Angeles assumed the next bold rush in the realms of Southern Californian preestablished media structures. The Northern Californian GamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse expected the

CES took place in Las Vegas again this year, although in a diminished form due to recurring pandemic conditions. The trade show was broadcasted online in a parallel streaming event. Daily b-roll videos documented the activities on the trade floor. But everything taking place at the trade event pointed to somewhere else. For a number of reasons, CES became a reference hub directing to different levels of hybridity. Of

This year’s SIGGRAPH Asia took place in Tokyo and online, adding a new program track for games to the scientific and cultural agenda. While the American mother event traditionally focuses heavily on CGI in film and screen productions, the Asian offspring now levels up CGI developments in interactive entertainment and installations. The Games track started with a historical journey through programming frameworks