Gamescom organizers originally intended to hold a hybrid event this year which would have featured both hands-on time with games in real life and streams, but that risky decision was fortunately reworked. "Even though the hybrid concept was very well received by partners, we had to recognize that GamesCom still comes too early for many companies in the industry due to the required planning reliability," Oliver Frese, COO of Koelnmasse, the German trade show organizer, said in a press release.

Now the Germans can appreciate the satisfaction of slicing a zombie in half with a samurai sword and be covered in virtual blood at the same time!

Currently scheduled for a convention date of August 25 to August 29, that puts one of the best gaming shows of the year strictly in the verboten crosshairs of the German government, forcing Gamescom to adapt to a digital strategy for this year.

The world of digital rights on video game purchases is still a bit murky. We’re still seemingly leagues away from being able to resell or even gift away the digital licences for the games we buy. Hell, up until relatively recently it was hard enough getting refunds for games. Steam was one of the first major platforms to offer refunds, through a straight forward and consumer-centric process. Microsoft’s refund process is now pretty similar to Steam’s. It’s a little tougher to get refunds on PlayStation consoles, but at the very least Sony will let you cancel a pre-order and get a refund. Good luck trying that with Nintendo.

Over in the land of Gamescom last week, the Star Citizen crew invited some of their most loyal backers to join them for an intimate dinner in Frankfurt, where SC big cheese Chris Roberts would be present for some QnA. The catch? This event was only open to Concierge members of Star Citizen, people who had spent at least $1000 on the game. The seats, or flat pieces of wood that their butts were crammed on top of in sardine fashion, cost $275 each.

EA wants to tackle the incredibly tricky subject matter of a German perspective of World War 2 with one of their single-player War Stories in Battlefield V, which goes under the chapter name of “The Last Tiger”.

Gamescom has been nailing theidea of bringing the video game industry to the people for years now. The Koelnmesse is titanic in size, well-equipped and ready to open its doors to anyone with a love for video games. What else is there to do though? What does the pop culture fanatic looking to do more than just play a slice of next year’s hot new release have to do between the hours waiting in line to do so?

At Gamescom last week, Blizzard unveiled a brand new map for Overwatch called Eichenwalde. It'll only be out officially next month, but it is playable now already on the Public Test Realm.