Skip to main content

Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024: How to watch and what to expect

The key art for Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024
Gamescom
Summer Gaming Marathon Feature Image
This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

Gamescom, Europe’s biggest gaming convention, returns this afternoon. Video game companies from all over the world will attend to present their upcoming games to the public. To kick things off each year, Gamescom works with Geoff Keighley, of Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards fame, to throw a Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase full of announcements. And 2024 is no different, as Gamescom Opening Night Live will take place this Tuesday. It will give us a look at some of the year’s biggest games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.

It’s a show that video game fans should tune into if they want an idea of what’s in development at some of the most popular game companies right now. We’ve rounded up everything that you need to know about Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 before tuning in today.

Recommended Videos

When is Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024

The main Gamescom Opening Night Live will begin today at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. If you don’t want to miss any announcements, know that there’s also going to be a preshow hosted by Kyle Bosman that precedes the main event at 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT.

How to watch Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024

GAMESCOM Opening Night Live 2024 ONL: Official Livestream (Tuesday, August 20, 11a PT/2p ET/8p CEST)

While it is possible to attend Gamescom Opening Night Live in person if you live in Germany, most of us will have to watch it online. It will be broadcast live on Gamescom’s official website and The Game Awards’ YouTube channel. We’ve embedded the YouTube link above, so you’ll be able to watch it right from this article once it rolls around.

What to expect from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024

Goku in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.
Bandai Namco Entertianment

The best part about Keighley’s showcases is that he isn’t tied to a single company or platform. That means anything is fair game in regards to what will show up to the show. In the leadup to Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024, companies like Activision, Meta, Bandai Namco Entertainment, and Capcom have already confirmed that they will be attending to show off their games. While there will probably be some surprises, the following titles have been publicly confirmed for Gamescom Opening Night Live.

  • Arc Raiders
  • Batman: Arkham Shadow
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
  • Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
  • Dune: Awakening
  • Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  • Infinity Nikki
  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
  • Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
  • Marvel Rivals
  • Monster Hunter Wilds
  • Okomotive’s next game
  • Project with the tagline “The Beast is Coming”
  • Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis: The Answer
  • Sid Meier’s Civilization VII
  • Squid Game: Unleashed
  • Tarsier Studios’ next game

You can expect a few surprises too. Hideo Kojima is already teasing that we may get a fresh glimpse at Death Stranding 2: On the Beach at the showcase. You can expect that and a few more surprises.

Tomas Franzese
As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Quiz: Can you tell the difference between these PS5 and PS5 Pro screenshots?
A PS5 Pro that's floating in front of a gray background. It's turned to the side.

Ever since the PlayStation 5 Pro was first revealed, I've seen a common refrain from some skeptics: "I don't see a difference!"

I was in the same boat when Mark Cerny introduced the console in a YouTube video back in September. A compressed YouTube stream just isn't the best way to communicate a console that both increases resolution and frame rate. I only started to see just how different the PS5 Pro looks compared to the base model once I could see them side by side in my own home. It took me some time -- and a lot of eye straining -- to spot some of the finer details outside of its more obvious AI-upscaling benefits, but I was able to see them eventually. The PS5 Pro does improve image quality, but is the bump enough to justify a $700 purchase?

Read more
Battle Aces was born from a rejected StarCraft 2 expansion pitch
Art from the reveal trailer for Battle Aces.

The fast-paced real-time strategy (RTS) game Battle Aces was inspired by an idea that game director David Kim had while working on StarCraft 2 at Blizzard Entertainment.

“Why can’t there be an RTS game that gets rid of all these tedious clicks and focuses on the fun factors?” Kim recalled thinking. “There was a point during Legacy of the Void’s development where we seriously considered cleaning up all of those things and made an RTS game that’s really focused on the fun. But the conclusion was that we should not switch up what StarCraft 2 is on the last expansion of the game.”

Read more
Nintendo’s next system is compatible with Nintendo Switch games
An image of the Nintendo Switch - OLED Model Mario Red Edition.

During its latest financial results, Nintendo revealed some more details about the successor to the Nintendo Switch. Specifically, Nintendo confirmed that people will be able to play their Nintendo Switch games on the new system.

"This is Furukawa. At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch," Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday night. "Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date."

Read more