作者：Thomas Bidaux

基于与E3博文类似的方式，我想要分析科隆国际游戏展在媒体中的影响力。这里所呈现的所有数据都是源自媒体追踪器。

在我开始前，我们必须明确一些环境的重要性。科隆国际游戏展（gamecom，并未大写G，这点很重要）是8月13日至17日在科隆举办的电子游戏活动。尽管E3是非常专业的活动，但科隆游戏展既是企业对消费者（B2C）也是企业对企业（B2B）的电子商业活动—-在与媒体互动间扮演着非常重要的部分。

gamescom(from tgbus)

与E3相似的是，在科隆国际游戏展举办的这一周将会有来自微软和索尼等公司的记者招待会。与E3临近并且是在“节日季”后几周都意味着这里所出现的新闻活动/媒体通报都会不同于E3。但是他们经常会重复揭示一些在E3中出现的内容，并且没有太多专属的公告，所以从总体上看这并不如在洛杉矶举办的E3大会有趣。

当我开始研究数据时，我想要将E3和科隆国际游戏展进行比较—-但是这两个活动的属性及其时间安排意味着这样的比较是不公平的，并且不可能包含我们所追踪的所有内容。我尝试着使用可行的比较，但同样也只是着眼于活动本身罢了。

科隆国际游戏展终于公开了其参与者数量：

335000万名访客

31500名贸易访客

700名参展者

6000名媒体代表

科隆国际游戏展本身

当提到我们的媒体追踪时，科隆国际游戏展最棒的一点便是，我们可以轻松地找到一些提及该活动的文章（但是对于E3却不是这样）。

在一周时间里便有16642篇文章提到了这一活动。最多文章出现在周二（游戏邦注：那天有来自两大主机制造商的媒体通报活动）。在周三，该活动的B2C部分只面向专业人士开放，并且还举行了新闻报道（例如还包括EA的记者招待会）。周五的时候，B2B活动区域明显收缩，B2C也是如此，许多专业人士（包括媒体）已经准备回家了。

尽管很明显这是一个以德国为中心的活动（几乎30%的报道都是来自德国），但仍有许多来自其它西方国家的内容。

平台

如果你与7月份的数据相比较，会发现科隆国际游戏展在报道数量更胜一筹，特别还考虑到它是在欧洲的夏天举办（有许多人放假了）。尽管影响很大，但却仍不能与E3匹敌。

你也可以看到记者招待会的影响，就像任天堂并未在科隆国际游戏展上召开记者招待会（尽管他们在E3的记者招待会取得了不错的成绩）：在E3期间，大约有13%的文章提到了Wii主机，但是在科隆游戏展的文章中却降至5%。这便是非常明显的行为反证。实际上，3DS的报道减少与其它主机暗示着任天堂在这次展会上专注于其掌上游戏是相联系的—-我仍然认为他们错失了良机。

通过着眼于整体的PlayStation品牌，我们可以看看E3和科隆国际游戏展在语言方面的差异：

为什么看起来很有趣：

关于这两个活动，使用德语的文章比使用其它语言的文章多的多。这与德国媒体领域更加多元化有关

基于英语，西班牙语和意大利语，E3创造了比科隆国际游戏展多55%至68%的报道。

尽管我们早就猜到德国媒体会给予当地活动更多的报道分量，但是看到法国媒体比英国，意大利或西班牙媒体更侧重科隆国际游戏展真的很有趣。

基于Xbox品牌进行同样的比较也出现了类似的结果，英国媒体例外：不管是在E3还是在科隆国际游戏展，Xbox的报道远少于PlayStation，因为Xbox品牌在美国和英国的发展比欧洲大陆更迅速。

游戏

这两个活动的最大区别在于游戏的发行日期—-开发者在E3上公开了《神秘海域4》，但是科隆国际游戏展是作为消费者优先的活动，所以该游戏并未出现在这一活动中。另一方面，作为年终大作的《Fifa 15》和《CoD:AW》不仅高调参加了科隆国际游戏展，同时还在B2C领域发挥了重要影响。

让我们以《COD:AW》作为第一个例子。我们可以看到很大一部分报道是来自德国媒体，但同时这款游戏也获得许多来自世界各地的报道。

让我们以《古墓丽影：崛起》为第二个例子。在记者招待会期间，微软宣称他们将在Xbox上独家发售这款游戏。这真的是一个惊人的新闻，这款游戏在已经在PlayStation上出现很长一段时间，而在我们这个时代独占这么一款知名游戏真的很少见。

开发者在E3公开了这款游戏，并且那时可能是这款游戏获得最多新闻报道的时候。

其实这款游戏在这两个活动中所获得的新闻报道（基于各种语言）数量相差不多：科隆国际游戏展中的许多报道可以说是对于E3的转述。

额外的想法

关于2015年，科隆国际游戏展已经宣称其举办日期将提到年初（向莱比锡游戏大会靠拢）。这意味着它将远离“节日季”以及那期间所发行的游戏。同时它也将更加接近E3日期。这将能够帮助它获得更多独家报道以及更多媒体的关注。

7月，Bethesda在QuakeCon大会期间推广了旗下所有游戏，并作出了一些有趣的公告。

上个周末是Penny Arcade Expo，即专注于B2C的展会。在活动中，Deep Silver公布了全新的《Saints Row》游戏。如果能避开另一个活动的噪杂去公开游戏会更有效。

现在出现了越来越多能让工作室和发行商去发表公告的活动，并存在某种趋势将这些活动与消费者活动维系在一起，这也是E3应该重视的一点。

原文发表于2014年9月2日，所涉数据和事件均以当时为准。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转功，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

PR monitoring – What is the impact of gamescom in the media?

by Thomas Bidaux

In a similar fashion to the E3 blog post, I want to analyse to the impact of gamescom in the media. All the data presented has been taken from our media tracker.

Before I begin though, some context is necessary. gamescom (without the capital G, that’s important to them) was a video game event set from the 13th to the 17th of August in Cologne. While E3 is very much a professional event, gamescom is both B2C and B2B – with a significant part of the later dedicated to interact with the media.

Similar to E3, the week was kicked off by a couple of press conferences from Microsoft and Sony. The proximity from E3 and the place in the calendar (a few weeks away from the first launches for the “holiday season”) mean those press events/media briefings are very different from their E3 counterparts. They usually echo reveals that were made at E3 and have a few of their own exclusive announcements, but by and large, they are not seen as exciting as those made in Los Angeles.

When I started digging into the number, I had in mind to compare E3 and gamescom – but the nature of the events (and perhaps more importantly) their timings mean it is hardly fair and not really possible across everything we track. I have tried to use some comparisons where applicable, but also looked at the event on its own as much as possible.

Finally, gamescom have announced their attendance numbers:

335,000 visitors

31,500 trade visitors

700 exhibitors

6,000 media representatives

gamescom itself

The nice thing with gamescom when it comes to our media tracking is that we can find articles mentioning the event itself rather easily (which we can’t do with E3 for instance).

Over one week, there were 16,642 articles mentioning the event. The peak day being the Tuesday (the day of media briefings event from the two largest console manufacturers and their reveals). On the Wednesday, the B2C part of the event is opened to professionals only and (along with Thursday) has the biggest part of the press presentations (including the EA press conference for instance). By Friday, the B2B area is slowing down significantly, the B2C is no longer easily accessible and a lot of professionals (including media) are on their way home.

While it is obvious that it is a very German event (almost 30% of all the coverage it generates is published in Germany), there is still a significant relay across all the others Western territories.

Platforms

If you compare to the July numbers, it is clear that the gamescom has a positive effect on the amount of coverage, especially when you consider it happens in the Summer in Europe (and with many people on holidays). It is also obvious that while beneficial, the impact is not comparable to the one the E3 has.

You can also see the impact of the press conferences, in the case of Nintendo that didn’t have one for gamescom (while their E3 one had fantastic results): during E3, about 13% of the articles on platforms mentioned the Wii consoles, that fell to 5% for gamescom. This is an impressive counter-performance after a stellar (IMHO) coverage at E3. The fact that the 3DS coverage drop was in line with the other consoles might hint at the fact that Nintendo focused on their handheld titles during this show – I still see it as a missed opportunity on their part.

By looking at the PlayStation brand as a whole, we can look at how the language breakdown differs between E3 and gamescom:

What it shows is quite interesting:

There are more articles in German than in other languages around both events. That’s consistent with the German media landscape that is more varied.

In English, Spanish and Italian, E3 generates between 55-68% more coverage than gamescom.

While it is expected for German media to give a lot of weight to a local event, it is interesting to see that French media (proportionally) cover gamescom more than English, Italian or Spanish media.

Running the same comparison on the Xbox brand is bearing similar results, with the notable exception of the English media: their drop-off between E3 and gamescom was smaller for Xbox than for Playstation which is in line of the Xbox brand being stronger in the US and the UK than on continental Europe.

Games

The biggest difference between the two events lies in the games’ release dates – while Uncharted 4 is announced at E3, gamescom being a consumer event first and the game not being shown there, it has no presence. On the flip-side, Fifa 15 and CoD:AW which are both year end releases have a much more significant presence – they both have a strong showing on the B2C side and a corresponding push in terms of PR.

Using COD:AW as a first example, we can see a strong proportion of the extra coverage is coming from the German media, but it is also true that the game overall got covered more across all countries.

Using Rise of the Tomb Raider as a second example is equally interesting. During its press conference, Microsoft announced that they had secured a (timed) exclusive for the game on Xbox… This was seen as a bombshell, the franchise has a long history with Playstation and an exclusive for such a high profile game is very rare in our day and age.

The game had been announced at E3, and this arguably one of the most covered news in the life of a game.

Now, looking at the fact that the game received more or less, the same amount coverage at the two events, across all the languages is very interesting: ultimately, gamescom has grown to a point where key announcement are as well relayed as if they had been made at E3.

Some additional thoughts

For 2015, gamescom has announced its dates for slightly earlier in the year (and more in line with the one of feu Leipzig’s Game Convention). That will mean it is further away from the “holiday season” and its bells and whistles focused on games about to be released. It will also be closer to E3 dates… It might be an opportunity to get a few more exclusives and get more of the media attention again.

In July, Bethesda promoted all its games during QuakeCon, making quite a few interesting announcements there.

This past weekend was the Penny Arcade Expo (Prime), a show firmly oriented B2C. At the event, (Germany-based) Deep Silver announced the new Saints Row game – an announcement that could have easily been done during gamescom. Somehow, announcing the title outside of the noise of another event was seen as preferable.

There are more and more events for studios and publishers to make their announcement at and the trend it to pair this with a consumer event of some form, a trend that E3 should probably look into…(source:gamasutra)