When I was growing up, E3 was one of the events in the calendar that I looked forward to the most. From console reveals to star-studded conferences, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was a series of corporate conferences that somehow felt like The Oscars, Comic-Con and Glastonbury combined. It was there that Final Fantasy VII Remake and The Last Guardian were finally shown (at the same conference); where then Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé made his public debut; and the venue where Keanu Reeves told a packed LA auditorium that they were all breathtaking. Yet for all its show-stopping game and console reveals, after 2020, it was the show itself that stopped, with the last in-person E3 taking place in 2019.Luckily for mourning gamers, there was always another world-leading interactive entertainment show that connected fans and industry folk with demos, head-turning announcements and best-in-class community events: Germany's gamescom. Where E3 was an event that was media-only for most of its existence, gamescom was always--and very much continues to be--a public-facing celebration of games and gamers; a convention that is just as brilliant for inspiring world-beating cosplay as it is for connecting journalists with publishers and industry folks in the business area. E3 may be gone, but gamescom is still here, having established itself as the world's biggest and best gaming event.Since 2019, gamescom has begun hosting its own games announcements, with the annual Geoff Keighley-hosted gamescom Opening Night Live gaining a reputation for delivering a non-stop cavalcade of exciting reveals. With gamescom's annual August celebration now comfortably the largest gaming event in the world--and with new gamescom sister events now delighting gamers in Brazil and Singapore (gamescom Asia is moving to Thailand for its next event)--it feels like the right time to celebrate the legacy of gaming's most beloved event. So, without further ado, here's a history of how Cologne's once humble convention went on to change the game forever.Continue Reading at GameSpot