COMMENT: gamescom asia finally makes sense for the regular gamer

For the last few years, gamescom asia has felt like a poor replacement for the very awesome GameStart Asia. To be fair, I did give it a chance the last few years, but most of the events were more for the business side of things.

But you honestly didn't need to have multiple booths in a huge hall if you wanted to do that. The last few years did feature the fan favourite Indie Zone, which were crowd pullers and this year was no different.

When I popped by on the last day, the entire Indie Zone was packed chock full of visitors trying out the various games. It was so full I couldn't even squeeze my way in to talk to developers as I originally planned.

But this year, with the focus on having its first Entertainment Zone which took up three halls, gamescom asia finally delivers what we've been missing since it replaced GameStart.

And it's honestly great that publishers have stepped up for the fans, with booths by Sony PlayStation, Capcom, Ubisoft, as well as local games publisher Epicsoft Asia. There were also a stage where brands such as Xbox could talk about their Game Pass service.

While NFTs and Web3 used to dominate much of the trade show, that was happily mostly missing from the Entertainment Zone, barring a few games.

I've never been a fan of NFTs in games, and totally happy to see the demise of the mechanic being used for gaming. Plus, I didn't have to see annoying crypto bros strolling around the place like they owned it. Please go away, and don't come back. Maybe use the tech for something actually useful.

I digress.

What really struck me was the energy of the place. People looked like they were having fun. They looked like they actually wanted to be there.

And sure, while it was packed, it wasn't crazy crowded. An exhibitor did mention as an aside to me that they wished it was crazy packed, but I pointed out that this was just the right amount of participants to enjoy without feeling packed like sardines.

If you've been to Anime Festival Asia, you'd know what I mean.

It also helps that Capcom, besides showing off its upcoming and current games, was also hosting the Capcom Pro Tour 2023 Singapore offline leg for Street Fighter 6, which Tsunehiro "gachikun" Kanamori won.

The atmosphere was electric as fans cheered on every move on stage. It also helps that Street Fighter 6 is easy to watch compared with MOBA games such as Dota 2 or League of Legends.

My wife, who was there, could easily watch the action as players traded flashy blows without needing to delve deep into the mechanics of buying items, creep denying, or which abilities do what. Fighting games have that advantage where even the layperson can just jump into watching. But if you do know, then the extra layer of depth makes it even more exciting.

I could hear the crowd chant at every hit, gasp at a brilliant punish, or the cheers as competitors finished off their opponents in style.

It's been a long while since we had an international event for a fighting game here — the last time was at GameStart Asia, the SEA Major 2019, so it's definitely fitting that the return of a major fighting games event would be one at gamescom asia.

The introduction of the Entertainment Zone at Gamescom Asia was a sorely needed one, and a great one to have moving forward.

But it will need publishers to sustain, and this may be difficult given that the much larger Tokyo Game Show precedes this and has more hype.

That said, who's to say gamescom asia can't actually grow to big as big as TGS, or even Gamescom itself?

I guess we'll find out together.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com. Views expressed are his own.

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