Book publishers and the games industry want to do more business together. The Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) to be held from 19 to 23 October 2016 and gamescom, Europe’s leading B2B entertainment trade fair (17 to 21 August 2016), jointly initiated the Publishers’ Pitch as part of the ‘gamescom license day,’ on 17 August. Five companies from the publishing world presented their projects and ideas to leading representatives of the international games industry. As many as 100 developers, producers and licensing experts attended the Publishers’ Pitch.
Publishers Aufbau, Carlsen and Droemer Knaur, as well as the British education platform The Flitwits and Belgium’s Mediatoon agency presented their titles with games potential at the event in Cologne. The topics ranged from the history of the Knights Templar and a dystopian story about Hamburg in 2084, to a manga-style graphic novel and some imaginative learning activities for children.
Gamescom congress
Know-how from the literature sector also provided the focus for the panel discussion, ‘A new Stage: Virtual reality meets highbrow culture’ at the gamescom congress accompanying the trade fair was held on 18 August. In a talk with the artistic director of the Berliner Festspiele, Thomas Oberender, virtual reality expert Thomas Bedenk (Exozet), and Olaf Zimmermann of the German Cultural Council, Holger Volland, vice president business development with the FBF and co-founder of THE ARTS+, discussed the idea of virtual reality as a new interface for theatre and art. This event was intended to build a bridge between highbrow culture and technical innovation, and to examine the associated challenges of stage setting and storytelling.
