4 takeaways from Devcom and Gamescom 2025: The DTC revolution, Asian publishers make a splash, and room for optimism

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Just two more days of the consumer expo left and that’s another Devcom and Gamescom marked off your busy events calendar for 2025. Congrats, you made it!

Devcom – now renamed Gamescom Dev – claimed a record 5,400 registered attendees this year. Be sure to check out our coverage of some of the key mobile talks here. Meanwhile, Gamescom itself was bustling as always.

We also brought some events into town ourselves, hosting the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025, bringing industry leaders together to celebrate the best of the best in the sector. You can read all about the winners here.

Then along with every other company (seriously), we hosted the Pocket Gamer Party on Wednesday night.

All in all, the week was another excellent opportunity to network with industry professionals from all over the world.

But what did we learn? We’ve rounded up some key takeaways from a week in Cologne.

1. The direct-to-consumer revolution grows stronger

Every time I write these event takeaway articles, I mention direct-to-consumer. The rise of web stores and alternative payment systems has been kicked into overdrive this year by various regulatory and court-led changes around the world.

Most notable is the Epic Vs. Apple decision in the US that has currently cracked open the country’s App Store completely.

Appcharge and Xsolla naturally had booths in the trade area to take advantage of the big moment. Various DTC companies also made a number of PR moves ahead of and during the show. Appcharge raised $58 million, Xsolla had a number announcements including SDKs for the Windows Store, the Epic Games Store and Unity. Aghanim, meanwhile, launched a new live ops and game hub builder.

DTC was also a central theme to the Mobile Track at Devcom. Xsolla was, of course, bullish, with VP of monetisation products Artem Liubutov saying DTC “isn’t optional anymore”. But what are developers thinking and doing?

FunPlus VP of business development Bob Slinn gave some honest and eye-opening remarks on that front. In the face of Apple’s alternative business terms in the EU (now changed as it battles the Digital Markets Act), the developer actually accepted them. The rules included being charged €0.50 per install over a million on an annual basis via the Core Technology Fee.

Given its large focus on 4X strategy games that don’t drive high downloads, he said it wasn’t particularly affected by the CTF. However, he noted genres such as hybridcasual could have seen a meaningful impact.

Overall there’s somewhat a sense of taking advantage while the sun shines as court battles and regulatory fights rage on. But there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle – check out our analysis of what publishers are making through DTC here.

2. Asia’s influence on the global games market

Walking across the trade area or the consumer expo, it’s clear how companies from Asia are looking to make a splash worldwide. 

To list a number of major Chinese companies and games present at the show: HoYoverse with Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, Amazing Seasun Games with Mecha Break, Hypergryph’s Arknights: Endfield, while Huawei AppGallery showed off a few titles.

Another Chinese publisher with a large booth was Infold Games (the international business brand for Papergames). You may not know much about its title Love and Deepspace, but it’s a highly successful mobile game and had a big presence at the show.

I got a chance to speak with the team (interview coming soon), who said there were around 500 people working on the game. That’s the level the Western publishers compete with.

Meanwhile there were Japanese publishers like Bandai Namco, Nintendo and Konami on the expo floor, and South Korean companies like Krafton, Pearl Abyss, and Samsung.

Of course, Western publishers weren’t exactly lacking, but it’s evident of how globally competitive the games industry is.

Also worth mentioning is just how noticeable anime has become right now. The corridors between the main halls of the expo were filled to the brim with banners for games like Arknights: Endfield and Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, while HoYoverse was of course making a splash.

3. TV streaming platforms hit the show floor

One thing I didn’t quite expect to see in the consumer halls were entertainment companies like Paramount, Disney and Netflix making a big show of top IPs from their respective streaming platforms.

Netflix in particular went all out with booths for Wednesday, Stranger Things and One Piece taking up considerable space. You’d be forgiven for forgetting company has a games division it could be pushing significantly at Europe’s largest games expo.

Paramount showed off shows like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, as well as the games tapping its licences like Avatar Legends: Realms Collide and Star Trek Fleet Command.

Meanwhile, Disney+ and Alien: Earth were kind of awkwardly positioned as, given the adult rating of the new show, you couldn’t actually see what was going on inside the booth.

It was fascinating seeing the intersection of games, TV and film, particularly in this age of transmedia opportunities and each entertainment sector tapping each others’ IPs.

4. Room for optimism

I came away from Devcom and Gamescom feeling optimistic for the mobile space. It’s well documented how tough the last few years have been, but in mobile at least, it seems like the sector has turned a corner. It’s still tough out there, former NextBeat CEO Simon Hade, now at Duolingo, recently spoke to us about just how challenging it is to launch a game.

But my chats have been a lot more positive than they have been negative over the past week – if you’re a big company, at least. Particularly in contrast to last year’s Gamescom.

The expo floor had a notable presence for mobile games, while Opening Night Live also had a few announcements for mobile releases. I’m not saying we’ll see the next smash hit match-3 reveal trailer at one of these events, but the industry can take the win.

Mobile’s growing influence at Gamescom over the years – thanks in large part to Asian publishers’ increasing global expansion – does feel like it’s putting mobile right at the heart of the industry when it comes to a notable showing on the expo floor.

That’s even if in 2025 we still had a Devcom panel about whether mobile gets the industry respect it deserves. The key takeaway was: ultimately, it doesn’t matter.