Hundreds of thousands of video game fans and industry figures were converging Wednesday on Germany's Cologne for the sector's biggest trade show. Gamescom kicked off late Tuesday with the surprise announcement of a new edition of the "Borderlands" franchise, to be released next year, as well as more details of the next "Call of Duty". Industry heavyweights Microsoft and China's Tencent are both joining the show, but Japanese giants Sony and Nintendo are staying away -- no reason has been given for their absence.
The event comes at a tricky time for an industry worth around $180 billion (160 billion euros) a year, according to figures from the Newzoo analyst firm. Sales are far from the peaks reached in the pandemic, smaller studios are struggling to survive and big publishers are imposing dramatic cost-cutting exercises with thousands of workers being laid off. But that did not dampen the enthusiasm on an opening night with plenty of surprise announcements.
"Borderlands 4, really, I wasn't expecting it," said German biologist Sarah Nobbe, one of more than 5,000 packed into the arena on Tuesday. The game's producers have promised that players will "blast their way through hordes of enemies" in the latest edition of Borderlands, a franchise that was adapted for cinema this year. The makers of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" took to the stage to promise "blockbuster action" in a game set in the early 90s -- "a time of global turmoil and uncertainty".
"You'll unravel a mind-bending c.