NEWS

Nintendo says it's skipping Gamescom 2024, a year after the event that saw the first Switch 2 leaks make their way on to the Internet [Disclosure: IGN is an official partner of Gamescom].

"Gamescom is a central event in Nintendo's event calendar," a Nintendo of Europe representative told Games Wirtschaft, according to GamesIndustry.biz. "This year, however, after careful consideration, we decided against taking part in Cologne. Instead, players can try out the games for Nintendo Switch as part of other Germany-wide events."

The news comes amid speculation that Nintendo will have a light release schedule in 2024. Nintendo has yet to confirm its release calendar for the second half of the year, though its decision to skip Gamescom reinforces rumors that the next-gen successor to the Switch has been pushed into 2025. As of right now, the biggest current Nintendo game known to be in development is Metroid Prime 4, which has not been shown since its original 2017 announcement.

At last year's show, Nintendo reportedly showed a demo based on targeted Switch 2 specs to developers that utilized Nvidia DLSS upscaling technology and ray tracing. News of the demo quickly leaked on the Internet, spurring speculation about its specs. Little else has been revealed since, including whether it will be a hybrid console or feature Joycons. Key questions also remain around whether it will include backwards compatibility.

This isn't the first time Nintendo has skipped Gamescom, as the platform holder opted to skip the event back in 2022. Playstation also skipped Gamescom in 2022 and 2023. As for Xbox, last year the company held a 60-minute global livestream event, though it's unclear what its plans are for this year's show.

Gamescom is slated to take place between August 21 and August 25 in Cologne, Germany. You can find all the release dates for the biggest games of 2024 right here.