The gaming world is descending on Cologne, Germany this week as Europe's largest video games show, Gamescom, kicks off. And, perhaps, more eyes are on it than ever considering E3 was cancelled this summer.
The annual show presents a great opportunity to see and play with the latest games and devices that will be coming out prior to Christmas, and the action begins today with Gamescom Opening Night Live – a presentation event that will feature a tonne of trailers and updates.
Here's how to watch it live online and what to expect.
What is Gamescom 2023 and when is the Opening Night Live keynote?
Gamescom is an enormous video games show that takes place in August each year (save for during the pandemic). It is held in the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany and is open to both the press, games industry and members of the public.
Major exhibitors include Xbox, Bethesda, EA and Ubisoft, but even if you can't attend in person, there's still a way you can keep up with everything that's announced.
That's because Gamescom Opening Night Live event is taking place today – on the eve of the show itself – and you can watch it stream online.
It starts at 20:00 CEST, local time to Germany, today, Tuesday 22 August 2023.
Here are the times for other locations:
- US West Coast: 11:00 PDT
- US East Coast: 14:00 EDT
- UK: 19:00 BST
- Central Europe: 20:00 CEST
- Australia (Sydney): 04:00 AEST (23 August)
How to watch Gamescom ONL 2023
The Gamescom Opening Night Live online stream can be watched via the video at the top of this page.
Alternatively, you will be able to watch it live on The Game Awards' YouTube channel, as it's by the same team as The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest.
What to expect
Gamescom Opening Night Live has been going for a few years, including non-person events during the pandemic. It tends to last around two hours with a pre-show feed starting 30 minutes beforehand.
As for what we should expect from the event, host Geoff Keighley has revealed that there won't be many new announcements. Instead, you should look out for updates on known games planned for the next 12 months.
That'll include new gameplay and trailers for Alan Wake 2 and the Chinese action RPG Black Myth: Wukong.
Previous ONL presentations have also shown us new accessories from different manufacturers, so we may get a glimpse of some hardware too.
T3 will be at Gamescom all week so make sure you come back to the site regularly to find out our views.
