After this year’s Summer Games Fest turned out to be a bit of a bust, we turned our attention to the event that’s kept the spirit of E3 alive. Gamescom promises four days of pure gaming goodness. Kicking off proceedings is Opening Night Live, led by the one and only Geoff Keighley (who else?) on 19 August 2025. Gamescom officially kicks off the following day — 20 August — and runs ’til Sunday, 24 August.
It’s Opening Night, fellas
Opening Night Live is typically where you’ll see most of the event’s biggest reveals and updates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of Gamescom is a dud. If you’re attending the event in person, you’ll get a chance to play Hollow Knight: Silksong on the new Xbox/Asus ROG Ally handhelds as well as the Switch 2. If not, you’ll have to make do with the planned Xbox broadcasts, the Future Games Show, and whatever Bethesda has cooking.
If it’s Opening Night Live you’re interested in, plant yourself near a screen and a decent internet connection on the night of Tuesday, 19 August. The two-hour show starts at 20h00 local time (14h00 ET). Whether you’ll see anything worth seeing at the thirty-minute-long pre-show at 19h30 is up to you. You can catch the show on the official Gamescom YouTube and Twitch channels.
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While most of the secrets are being saved for Opening Night Live, we do have a rough idea of what’ll come out of Keighley’s mouth. Call of Duty fans, for instance, will want to see the Black Ops 7 “worldwide reveal” where we’ll almost certainly get a release date for the new shooter. Honor of Kings: World will also receive a trailer, and there’s a performance featuring music from Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 planned.
Xbox will hog all the attention for the following two days of Gamescom, 20-21 August, starting at 15h00 local time (09h00 ET) each day. Xbox promises to deliver “first-look gameplay, developer interviews, new trailers, updates, and more” from inside the event. Xbox teased news for Call of Duty, Grounded 2, and Keeper on the first day (20 August), with day two (21 August) featuring news from The Outer Worlds 2, Ninja Gaiden 4, and Overwatch 2.
