gamescom 2022: Nintendo is not present

After a two-year break due to Corona, gamescom will finally be held again in August 2022. The world’s largest games trade fair in the meantime wants to inspire gamers and trade visitors in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. But with Nintendo, one of the biggest names in the industry has now cancelled. The Japanese will not be represented at gamescom 2022.

gamescom 2022: Nintendo gives cancellation

The Nintendo Switch is and remains the most popular games console at the moment, and the Japanese manufacturer still has some hot titles on offer for the second half of 2022. However, they will not be represented at gamescom 2022, as the company has now announced. Nintendo Switch highlights such as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 or Splatoon 3 can therefore not be played in Cologne.

As the manufacturer told the magazine GamesWirtschaft on request, they “after careful consideration, however, decided against participation in Cologne”. Instead, the new Switch titles are to be playable as part of numerous events throughout Germany.

With their own Airstreamer and Nintendo Bulli, they will be represented at the SWR Summer Festival and the Stuttgart Children and Youth Festival, among others. Nintendo will also participate in the Main Matsuri Japan Festival in Frankfurt as well as DoKomi in Düsseldorf and AnimagiC in Mannheim.

Already at the U.S. trade show E3, which is not even taking place this year, Nintendo has been conspicuous by its absence for years, preferring to present titles in a separate event (Nintendo Treehouse).

gamescom 2022: Is the fiasco looming?

Nintendo is not the first manufacturer that has thus canceled its participation in gamescom 2022. Publisher 2K Games and Wargaming will also not be represented with their own booth. As of now, around two months before the start of the trade fair, only a few exhibitors have even confirmed their participation. Among them are THQ Nordic, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Koch Media.

This is despite the fact that gamescom will open all of its exhibition halls in Cologne-Deutz for the first time this year, theoretically providing significantly more space than ever before. Advance ticket sales are scheduled to start in a few days. If other big names in the industry such as Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and others are not represented in Cologne, gamescom 2022 could turn into a fiasco.