Yesterday, gamescom 2022 kicked off in Cologne, and over 35 games were newly presented or received new trailers. MeinMMO author Schuhmann looks at who won the unofficial “Battle for the Trailer” for him and which game already seems hopeless right now. This is Schuhmann’s impression of the gamescom Opening Night Live.
Which games were presented? A total of over 36 trailers were shown last night in 2 hours, of which only one game, Dead Island 2, had two trailers to itself.
We have summarized the trailers for you in the live ticker.
Harry Potter has the biggest hype before the start of gamescom
Which game had the highest expectations beforehand? If you listened on social media before gamescom, most Twitter users were excited about “Hogwarts Legacy”, the game from the “Harry Potter” universe. For many Potter fans, this seems to be the game they’ve been waiting for – and Harry Potter is one of the biggest pop culture brands in the world, on par with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
A controversy surrounding the alleged transphobia of author J.K. Rowling cannot dampen the anticipation.
3 games received a lot of applause in the hall
Which game had the biggest reaction in the hall? The gamescom in Cologne has a live audience for the first time in 3 years that could react to the trailers. The last major events were held purely virtually.
According to MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski, the biggest reaction in the hall was Dune: Awakening, a new survival MMO from Funcom, who had already developed Conan Exiles. Leya wrote to us that she was close to fainting after the announcement.
Similar positive reactions were also seen for Hogwarts Legacy; it was enough to mention the title, and the mood in the audience was good.
The pretty violent Callisto Protocol also impressed the audience in the hall.
The laughter was on the side of games like Return to Monkey Island or Goat Simulator 3. In the “You play a goat” game, even the title is a joke: There is actually no game called Goat Simulator 2. The developers are such trolls that they already allowed themselves the first joke with the title and broke the rules for the numerical designation of a game.
This trailer could excite the hall: Dune: Awakening
PS5 Controller and Dune are the big winners of gamescom 2022
How are the views looking? About 20 hours later, the trailer views for these 3 audience favorites look like this:
- Dune: Awakening: 226,462 views – 4,556 likes
- Hogwarts Legacy – 148,165 views – 6,878 likes
- Callisto Protocol – 79,917 views – 2,688 likes
Out of competition, the trailer for the new controller of the PlayStation ran:
- Dual Sense Edge Wireless Controller – 698,691 views – 28,329 likes.
The PS5 controller is definitely one of the big winners.
Regarding views, we refer to the official trailers – game trailers often have many views through other channels as well.
Who won in the games? If it depends on the video views on the trailer and the upvotes on reddit , “Dune: Awakening” seems to have won the start of gamescom.
In the gaming-savvy audience, the SF brand “Dune” is even a bit hotter than among the Twitter public, where Harry Potter fans dominate.
Classic Rock or Metal makes every trailer better
Who was my favorite? I, Schuhmann from MeinMMO, especially liked the trailer for
- The Lords of the Fallen – it has 154,382 views and 1,159 likes
This is not because I liked the game so much, or that I’m a Dark Souls fan, but I’m just totally conditioned:
Because the game with the somewhat silly name, like every “Dark Fantasy” game, relied on a rock classic, Danzig – Mother.
The combination of action trailer and classic rock has convinced me since the first Destiny trailer, where Bungie showed how much they love Led Zeppelin.
For me, one of the best hype trailers ever:
Unusual game walks on dangerous paths
Who is already the candidate for “The Game is Dying?” It is a bit sad because it was also received with applause in the hall and wants to appeal to core gamers and enthusiasts, but I must admit that “Moonbreaker” has poor chances of surviving long-term.
The game wants to be a “turn-based strategy game” and replicate the tabletop experience of miniature games like Warhammer; you should even be able to paint miniatures.
- The trailer for Moonbreaker has 38,000 views and 535 likes.
The game wants to be a mix of “Xcom and Hearthstone”, combining two successful games.
However, it seems to me more like a mix of “Atlas Reactor” and “Battleborn”, two terrible flops. Although I actually liked Battleborn, it just didn’t work with its insane aesthetics, where every character was somewhat odd, it simply did not function.
And Atlas Reactor was such a bad flop that it not only died once but three times.
In the comments on YouTube, some people are already saying that instead of playing something like this, they would rather just stick to the original.
The development team behind the game is known for drastic genre switches and surprises. With “Subnautica”, they had a pacifistic survival hit, but that Moonbreaker will be a success can already be doubted – even though I would genuinely wish for a “against all odds” success for the game.
But I doubt the game, also because “Mister Death Kiss himself” has already taken Moonbreaker into his heart: former MeinMMO editor Jürgen Horn said he liked the game, so he’s already sure it will die soon. Jürgen has some kind of little curse going on:
5 online games that I think are good, but you don’t!
How have you experienced gamescom 2022 so far? Who are your winners and which game will hardly hold its ground – what do you think?
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