gamescom Is Coming!

Yes, it might seem like E3 was only yesterday, but the next major event in the video game calendar is now nearly upon us. From 15th to 19th August, hundreds of thousands of gamers will be descending on the cavernous Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany to check out the very latest in video game entertainment. And naturally, PlayStation will have a major presence.

First and foremost is the Sony press conference, which kicks off at 7.00pm CET/6.00pm BST on 14th August. The whole show will be streamed live from the PlayStation Blog so please mark your diaries! You’ll also be able to watch on Home, the PlayStation Official App for iPhone and Android, and on the PlayStation Facebook page.

I’ll be live-Tweeting the whole event too, with some help from the eu.playstation.com team, so keep half an eye on @PlayStationEU as well.

Then immediately after that we’re hosting a panel discussion, which will see the following industry luminaries chewing over that age-old ‘games as art’ debate:

• Shuhei Yoshida, President, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios
• Ian Dallas, Co-founder and Creative Director, Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan)
• Kellee Santiago, Co-founder, thatgamecompany (Journey, Flower)
• Alex Evans, Co-founder, Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet)
• Adam Volker, Moonbot Studio (Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler)
• …and a special guest working on a currently unannounced project

Again, this will all be streamed live right here on the blog. Eurogamer and BBC man Johnny Minkley will be serving as compere and will be putting your questions to our experts. If you want to get involved please Tweet your query using the #PSGC hash tag. We’ll go through the suggestions on the day of the show and pick out the best.

You may remember that last week we put out a request for your artwork to serve as a backdrop for the panel. We’ll have more to say on the finalists next week – stay tuned.

Then, once all that is out the way, you can expect a steady stream of posts throughout the week offering a closer look at all the various titles on show. In short, we’ll be your one-stop shop for all things gamescom.

In the meantime, feel free to wildly speculate below over what might be making an appearance on the 14th. And if you’re planning on attending, please do make yourself known! I’ll be in and around the Sony booth all week and it would be lovely to say hi.