Gamescom opens with Final Fantasy and The Witcher previews

Gamescom opened in Cologne on Tuesday with Final Fantasy and The Witcher among the main draws, as the video games industry seeks attention during a year of job cuts, higher console costs and crowded release schedules.

The sold-out opening ceremony gave about 5,000 fans and professionals a look at new titles for nearly two hours. Attendees saw images from Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the third and final entry in the remake series first launched in 1997, with Japanese director Naoki Hamaguchi present.

CD Projekt showed a new expansion for The Witcher 3 due next year, ahead of The Witcher 4 in 2028. The Polish studio also announced a remastered version of The Witcher 3 for Sept. 29, free of charge. The Witcher 3 has sold more than 65 million copies since its 2015 release.

Other presentations included Metro 2039 from Ukrainian studio 4A Games, due in February, and Nodus Fall from Chinese studio Hoyoverse. From Wednesday, visitors will be able to test new titles at hundreds of stations. Organisers said more than 1,600 exhibitors will show more than 800 games. Last year, nearly 360,000 people attended Gamescom, close to pre-Covid attendance of about 370,000.

Grand Theft Auto VI is not being shown at Gamescom. Rockstar Games has scheduled a Netflix preview for Thursday before the game's Nov. 19 launch. Nintendo is due to present Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and Microsoft's Xbox division is showing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Gears of War: E-day. Sony, the maker of the PlayStation 5, is not attending.

Joost van Dreunen, a New York University Stern School of Business professor who studies video game economics, said the market is crowded. Overall spending in the US video game market dropped 21% in June. Console prices have risen as memory chips become more expensive amid demand from the AI industry. Nearly 10,000 people have lost their jobs in the gaming sector since January, and the industry is on course for 15,000 layoffs this year, according to the ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker.