Gamescom 2013: The Success of the Decline

I visited the Gamescom 2013 on Thursday. The biggest Gamescom ever in terms of visitors, you can say that for sure. The amount of traffic around the exhibition let collapse the roads. Cologne was not ready for this. Aggressiveness and the flair of resignation outside. And if you look more precisely, inside it was the same.

The gamer. Hardcore gamers, casual gamers, all fine and good. But inside the halls you can see another kind of visitors. It feels like a big part of the exhibition visitors have few or no interest in the games and the hardware. Sure, it never was a nerd-only event. But it totally changed now.
The available app with the "free goodies" alarm is a good example how the trend was set from the exhibitors. It's a fun & young place. And they were right when they gave a proud interview a few days ago, that there isn't a typical gamer any more. Unfortunately.

One scene was especially weird and descriptive for the sad way this event is going. A few people try to turn on the girls that are cleaning the floor. I have to admit they were very beautiful, but come on. The scene were full of people,especially men, that cared more about their hair and their gold & muscles, than about the games. The smell of cheap, and some expensive, after shave was flowing in the air. Really, I rather smell the nerd-sweat than seeing this Lackaffe around me. The gamer-scene are the minority now.

Having said this, a few things were also conspicuous. The goodies they gave out were much, much less than 2 years ago. One bored lady at Sony demands to make pushups before her feet to get a PS4 hat. It doesn't seem the official way, and I nearly asked her to do some pushups in front of me, because I make free advertisement for Sony. I didn't because the non-gamers showed up and try to impress with the amount of pushups. How pitiful.

The second thing on my mind, there were really only a few hostesses. Unlike 2 years ago, were you could see them everywhere, I barely saw one. The best were the Battlefield 4 Squad. But okay, better not call them hostesses. The equipment was either big, loud and with a ridiculous amount of screens, or very basic with nothing special. The big companies took over completely. A nice and ambient booth came from Crytek. You really felt game atmosphere right away. But other than that. Big screens were the only decoration for most of the booth' this year. Where were the enthusiastic programmers that talked to the gamers directly? Instead of some prominent face giving autographs for a game, I would rather like to see the real stars, that sit there for hours and hours, programming their fingers to bleed and making these things comes to live.

Many small gaming companies were not present. That lead to a weird picture in the MMO hall, or at least were it used to be. You barely could talk about such thing now, as Nintendo were in that hall, while in the back, dozens of anime shops and other shops unrelated to gaming were present. Even a commercial, once goth & heavy metal store, was there. The new dark hipsters temple. I don't know if a few gaming shirts qualified them to be part of the gamer-scene. Another part that attract people that really do not belong to gaming.

To do a resumee, I have to say the real gaming nerds, geeks and fans are in the minority now at the Gamescom. Sure people there enjoy the games, fun and the way to show themselves off. But it's not the Gamescom I liked in the beginning. The Gamescom is dead! At least for real gamers. Next year, I will stay at home, playing some new games and having fun.

There is not the slightest doubt, that the Gamescom is a huge success. I would wonder if this isn't the Gamescom with the most visitors and commercial success. But it's not a success for the gaming-nerds. They have just been degraded to be 2nd or 3rd in line. The hipsters noobs have taken over.

Some photos and videos from the Gamescom 2013: Album Gamescom 2013

The Google Play Music All Access Disaster

Well, sometimes you know, it's hard not to be in Silicon Valley if you are a geek. But sometimes, you have reason to get grumpy, because you know something is wrong. Very wrong.

Today I heard the news. Google Play Music All Access is available in Europe, after month of waiting. US-only is the biggest downturn if you live not in the US. Now, the problem here is, it's not available in "Europe". It's available in only a few countries. The biggest markets are missing, like Germany.
I made a furious post about it on Google+. And you have all the right to be upset if you live in a country now, that is not supported, but especially in Germany. And here is why:

The GEMA. Yes, the beloved institution that now denies paying artists for years now on YouTube, because they refuse to make a deal with Google. But is the GEMA guilty alone? I'm not sure any more. For a contract there are to parties. They have to set the conditions and get an agreement that is acceptable for both sides. For a music streaming service, like All Access, there are pretty much standard procedures. That is why many, many companies offering legal streaming services in Germany, like Deezer, Spotify, MyJuke and many other smaller players. So it's clearly possible to make an agreement on that.
And Google? One of the biggest companies are not able to get a deal with them? I see it's not that easy. But for the customers, it is. No service, no money. It's that simple. Neither for the GEMA, nor for Google.

Today, after reading this, I bought the Premium+ package for 9.95 at Deezer. The offer a huge database of songs, and are available for years now in Europe, incl. Germany. The French-based company has managed to offer a good service within the web-browser or via mobile-app for iOS and Android. And yes, you have unlimited number of MP3 tracks you can upload. That's it for Google Music for me.

You know, the interesting thing is, all this rants about the unavailability of Google products are a compliment for Google. We know their services are great. Don't offering them, let people make feel themselves 2nd class customers. And at Google, we are I guess. With all the problems, that Vic Gundotra is talking about, I really feel with Google. But for a company that size, I just demand to make things happen. Especially while many others can do the same. Google Music in Germany is a disaster.

So I wait for the Chromecast, buying movies on Google Play Movies, Google Edition Phones, and a decent Chromebook in Germany. But I'm not waiting any longer for the All Acces Streaming Service, as the competition already offering excellent services on European based servers. Something you get as a bonus, and is very interesting these days.