Nintendo won’t be at Gamescom 2024

Nintendo

It looks like there won’t be a Nintendo Switch 2 announcement at Gamescom 2024 in Cologne, Germany, because Nintendo won’t be attending Europe’s biggest video game convention at all. 

In a statement towards German outlet Games Wirtschaft, a Nintendo of Europe spokesperson said: “Gamescom is a central event in the annual calendar. However, after careful consideration, we’ve decided against coming to Cologne this year.”

Ticket sales for this year’s convention, which is set to take place from August 21 to 25, 2024, have begun last month even though there is essentially no information on which companies will attend the event – when it comes to Nintendo, at least, things seem to be clear now.

Nintendo attended Gamescom 2023 in style, bringing games like Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, and Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – taking home five awards from the event. In its public venue, it entertained the masses from a large stage, while behind the scenes another massive Nintendo area was built – with security measures rivaling a prison. Allegedly, industry guests were shown exclusive details on Nintendo’s next console behind its doors.

Last year, around 320,000 visitors attended Gamescom in Cologne – a stark contrast to the fate of its American counterpart E3, which went bust after failing to attract enough studios to attend.

However, with Nintendo already out of the picture, there will be pressure on Gamescom to get at least the other “big two” – Microsoft and Sony – to pay a visit to the city on the Rhine. Naturally, it would have been the best-case scenario for Gamescom if Nintendo had decided to premiere its upcoming Nintendo Switch successor there, which has reportedly been delayed to an early 2025 release date.

Now, other attractions will have to motivate people to buy tickets – but the organizer is keeping its silence on who’s attending so far. Perhaps Nintendo being out will necessitate a reaction that will shed some light on this year’s industry guests.