Nintendo Returning to Gamescom Sparks Speculation About What They’ll Show Off

E3 may be canceled (possibly forever) but Gamescom is still on, and it’s been revealed Nintendo will be attending. This is significant news, as the Mario publisher hasn’t attended a Gamescom since 2019. Of course, Gamescom 2020 was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but shows went ahead in 2021 and 2022 without Nintendo’s involvement. Well, today Gamescom announced via Twitter that Nintendo will in fact have a full presence at the show this year.

“We are excited to announce that Nintendo will be exhibiting at #gamescom2023! Many more exhibitors will follow in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!”

Another reason this might be significant is that rumors went around earlier this year that the latter half of 2023 would be light in terms of Nintendo releases. The two biggest games currently on Nintendo’s calendar, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4, will already be out by the time Gamescom kicks off, and it seems unlikely they’d stake out space at the show if they had nothing new or exciting to show. So, hopefully, Nintendo still has some big things to reveal this year – perhaps they might even announce something during the usual Geoff-Keighley-produced Gamescom Opening Night Live show.

Of course, this is all just speculation, so don’t get too excited just yet. Maybe Nintendo will just bring a few Zelda kiosks to the show and that will be it. That said, as a reminder, last time Nintendo attended Gamescom back in 2019 they showed off a number of then-unreleased games, including The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Astral Chain, Pokemon Sword and Shield, and more. Hopefully, Nintendo will update us on their specific plans for Gamescom 2023 before too long.

Gamescom 2023 runs from August 23 until August 27 at its usual location in Cologne, Germany. You can grab tickets to the event here. What do you think? Will Nintendo bring something exciting to the show or should we temper our expectations?

Written by Nathan Birch