About 60 studios, developers and professionals will represent Belgium in Cologne, Germany, from Wednesday onward at Gamescom, Europe's largest video-game trade fair.
Their aim will be to stand out from the crowd of new video games trying to make a name for themselves in a sector in crisis following the COVID pandemic.
For the first time, Belgium will have two separate stands at the event: one for Wallonia and the other for Flanders and Brussels Region. Around 30 studios, developers and organisations will be present on both sides to showcase young Belgian talent.
This separation is due to "a desire for efficiency," according to Jean Gréban, coordinator of Walga, the Walloon video game-sector federation.
"Flanders has bigger studios, while in Wallonia there are many start-ups and student projects," Gréban explains. "The aim in the south of the country is above all to raise awareness, improve developers' skills and establish contacts with other markets, such as Brazil and Asia," he says.
Belgian players aim to stand out from the crowd of new games that hit the market every year. On Steam, the leading computer platform, there were nearly 18,000 new titles available in 2024, and the 20,000 mark could be reached this year.
"We're in the right segment with independent games, which are much less risky financially than triple-A titles like GTA VI," says Walga's Gréban. "We're starting to be at the forefront of self-publishing and self-promoting games. We also aim to think local, then global."
Although Gamescom is open to the public from Thursday to Sunday, most Belgian studios will focus on the trade show, which starts on Wednesday.
