Gamescom Dev head says smaller studios represent the biggest opportunity in the games market

Frederik Hammes, who took over from Stephan Reichart as managing director of Gamescom Dev this 12 months, says the outcomes of the Gamescom Dev speaker survey present that smaller studios represent the biggest opportunity in the games market proper now.

“You are in a position to do extra with fewer individuals, however the enterprise side would not go away,” he tells GamesIndustry.biz. “When you’re solely three individuals, it nonetheless means any person has to care for the enterprise facet. I prefer to imagine that [Gamescom Dev] is a spot the place they’ll get every little thing in one place – manufacturing information, coding information, improvement information, inventive enter, design, but additionally study the best way to run that enterprise as a result of, regardless of all the know-how, that is nonetheless crucial.”

In August 2025, Devcom was rebranded as Gamescom Dev, and Hammes says that the rebranding basically extends Gamescom to a full week.

“I feel the arguments for getting nearer to Gamescom are sturdy,” he says. “We now have an enormous, massive, sturdy companion at our facet now, and that has a number of benefits. To call sensible ones, it is simpler to know for individuals who perhaps have not been right here. So earlier than, it was two conferences, two sorts of tickets, two alternative ways to buy the tickets, and actually little connection between the two. Now, it is one ticket store. You’ve all the stuff there that you really want. It is the Gamescom enterprise week, it is from Monday by Friday. When you come right here, purchase a ticket, you can too enterprise over to Gamescom till Friday.”

This 12 months, the present boasts 390 audio system and 220 periods throughout 17 phases. “It should not be a numbers sport,” Hammes says. “It should not be that we’ve to achieve this or that degree. It is all the time a query of provide and demand. We really feel it is turning into extra specialised.”

The Gamescom Dev MD says that the present’s development is considerably restricted by its venue, the Confex Heart at Koelnmesse. At the second, the present matches into this area, however there may be “restricted room to develop”, he says. But when the games trade continues on its present path, the occasion might need to increase and turn out to be “nearer to Gamescom”.

“Proper now the plans are to not turn out to be manner greater as a result of then there will likely be a much bigger endeavor to perhaps be bodily nearer to Gamescom, which is a risk. “When you assume forward, that course of I used to be describing earlier – smaller studios, that type of democratisation of sport improvement – if that goes on, we would want extra room to have the ability to cater to everyone.”

Devcom began in 2017 to fill the hole left by the departure of the GDC Europe convention. Although the San Francisco-based GDC is an apparent rival to Gamescom Dev as a result of it addresses comparable audiences and matters, Hammes says he would not see it that manner, saying there’s a nice sense of “group… behind the scenes”.

“We’re nonetheless totally different corporations,” he says. “Everybody desires to make cash, however it’s not as cutthroat as I’d say. And in the finish, it is a world circus, so to talk, in a great way. Folks journey from convention to convention. It isn’t about extinguishing different conferences and being the solely ones. If everyone’s doing nicely, it means the entire trade is doing nicely. At the second, our colleagues at GDC are having some points that they don’t seem to be at fault for with the surroundings that they should function in proper now. And I hope that it is getting higher. We hope everyone will likely be doing effective, to be fairly sincere.”

One new addition to the Gamescom Dev schedule is its slate of Management Summits. These are one-day occasions the place the games trade’s prime brass can communicate in a room with out press, microphones, or recording. Hammes says that it is necessary for the sector’s management to have a “secure area” to debate the turbulent waters of the games market at the second.

“It isn’t a lot listening. It is talking up. It is exchanging,” he says. “I used to be in the room when it began. We had a present of arms for the way many individuals in the room needed to ship dangerous information in that 12 months, and all the arms went up. Requested how many individuals had heard dangerous information for his or her firm that 12 months; all their arms stayed up. It is a difficult surroundings proper now, clearly. We wish to present a secure area for individuals, for leaders, to open up as a result of it is difficult to open up whenever you’re at a sure degree and all you are used to doing is projecting power and making an attempt to look steady and all that.”

The aforementioned speaker survey reveals an trade divided in relation to synthetic intelligence. 47% of audio system say that this will likely be the most impactful improvement on the trade throughout the subsequent three years, however solely 11% of respondents stated that AI literacy was the most necessary ability individuals must develop.

“How does it correlate? You can say both we overestimate the affect that AI could have or we underneath put together for it,” Hammes explains. “My conclusion is it is neither, really, as a result of for those who ask what is definitely the most necessary ability, it’s management. 27% say management is the most necessary ability. That interprets to: ‘We all know change is coming. We do not search for know-how and for expertise in that know-how to rescue us. We’re on the lookout for individuals’. We’re on the lookout for leaders who present us the manner the best way to take care of it.”