✨ gamescom congress 2025 – Our Biggest Edition Yet ✨

The 2025 edition of gamescom congress was our biggest and most impactful yet. With 180 speakers and more than 1,000 visitors, the congress once again proved to be a vital platform within the world’s largest gaming event.

gamescom cogress, Opening Keynote, Confex Level 2

As Curatomic, we’ve been entrusted for the past five years with program direction and speaker management – a responsibility we are proud to carry on behalf of game – German Games Industry Association and Koelnmesse GmbH. This year we introduced new formats such as the Games & Health exhibition, hosted diverse tracks on Games & Well-Being, Next Level of Immersion, and Games & Responsibility, and welcomed international leaders, policymakers, academics, and creatives from across the globe.

Acknowledgements:
Our heartfelt thanks to:

  • game – German Games Industry Association (Felix Falk, Maren Raabe & team)
  • Koelnmesse GmbH (Robin Lehwald, Nicole Endewardt, Simon Krenkel, Marvin Grollius & team)
  • Staatskanzlei NRW (David von Galen, Antonia Weiland, Florian Stege & team)
  • nerdstar GmbH (Dirk Ludewig, Jessica Schrader, Lukas Queer & team)
  • fischerAppelt (Marilyn Salamov, Daniel Impetro, Cynthia Appelt & team)
  • …and all institutional partners including the State of NRW, City of Cologne, Deutscher Kulturrat, Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur, UNICEF, USK, GMK, Video Games Europe, NetCologne, Playing for the Planet, plus media partners t3n Magazin and Business Punk.

A very special thanks also goes to our Curatomic team – Alessandra van Otterlo, Max Kolb, Anna-Carolin Weber, Maggie Polach, Philipp Dittmann – for keeping everything running smoothly upfront and during the event with our speakers.

Photo Gallery:

gamescom congress, Alle auf die 1 ?! Wie Deutschland weltweit oben mitspielen will, v.l.n.r. Joachim Ebemeyer (MdB CDU/CSU), Benedikt Grindel (Ubisoft), Nathanael Liminski (Staatskanzlei NRW), Heike Raab (Staatskanzlei Rheinlanz-Pfalz), Frauke Holzmeier (RTL / ntv), Confex
gamescom cogress, Opening Keynote, Confex Level 2
gamescom congress, Wer ist Bilal? – Games gegen Radikalisierung und Desinformation, v.l.n.r.Jörg Friederich (Game Director), Lisa König (Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg), Nathanael Liminski (Staatskanzlei NRW), Cigdem Uzunoglu (Grimm-Institut), Marcus richter (richter.fm), Confex

Photos: Koelnmesse & Tobias Kopka

Closing Note:
The conversations sparked at gamescom congress 2025 will resonate far beyond the event. We’re grateful to have been part of shaping this platform at the intersection of games, culture, economy, and society – and we look forward to continuing the exchange.