Gamescom reveals show partners and award categories for 2020

Due to obvious reasons surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Gamescom will be an all-digital event in 2020. We’ve already talked about preparations for the show reaching their conclusion, and now Gamescom has announced a long list of partners who will be contributing to the digital event. There are some pretty big names on the list, including Xbox, Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, EA, Ubisoft and more.

The full list of Gamescom’s external partners for 2020 is massive. You should expect to see the likes of Bandai Namco, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Bethesda, Yooreka Games, Blizzard, and many others. Dotemu will also be present, fresh off its latest success story with Streets of Rage 4. You can check out the rest of the partners list at the official site — in case you want to give your scroll finger a workout.

It’ll be interesting to see what updates we get from the big players. Will Activision Blizzard follow up on Blizzcon 2019’s talk surrounding Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4? It’d be nice to get a glimpse of Bethesda’s Starfield too, although anything notable from Bethesda seems miles off at this point. We’re not expecting much from Ubisoft this year following the Ubisoft forward event, but we’ll take any surprises we can get.

A reward for the season

Alongside the partner announcement, the convention also revealed its award categories for 2020. These will be handed out across four category groups at two ceremonies, on August 27 and August 30. The award categories cover genres, such as best action adventure game, best sports game, best strategy game, and the like. It’ll also cover best platform games for consoles and PC, as well as “most wanted hardware/technology.”

Gamescom itself has its own category of awards. These include best announcement and “best of Gamescom.” We’re not sure what criteria must be met for some of these awards, but it’s an interesting and comprehensive list. Of course, the genre and platform categories are what interest us the most, as they’re about actual games and hardware.

All in all, Gamescom 2020 is shaping up to be an interesting event. Hopefully it captures some of what E3 lost this year with the convoluted and spread out “Summer of Gaming” replacement.