Sega joins Nintendo in skipping Gamescom

Sega has joined Nintendo in deciding against attending Europe’s biggest consumer games event Gamescom.

The publisher said the timing of the event didn’t work with its planned release schedule, and that it had made a “commercial decision” to skip it.

This will be the second time in three years that Sega has missed Gamescom, after also skipping it in 2010.


"Sega has made the decision not to attend Gamescom this year," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement to GI.

"Unfortunately the release timing of our 2012 triple-A titles and new projects don’t work with the mid-August scheduling of the show. The decision will not mean that Sega will never attend Gamescom in the future, this was simply a commercial decision made for 2012."

Nintendo revealed it would not be attending the event last month, despite the console giant claiming it was “one of the most important fairs for us”.

Gamescom will take place in Cologone from August 15th to 19th, and will showcase games from hundreds of the biggest games companies in the sector.

Publishers such as EA, Ubisoft and Take-Two are excepted to be three of 500 exhibitors.

Last year’s event drew in about 275,000 attendees, with organisers expanding available exhibition space to 140,000 square metres to accommodate a similar turn out this year.