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It's the middle of August, which means it's time for another glimpse at the future of video games with the upcoming Gamescom 2024.

As always, the festivities will kick off with the Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase in Cologne, Germany, during which regular host Geoff Keighley will reveal new trailers and information for some of the biggest games hitting shelves in the foreseeable future.

In this guide, we will let you know when Gamescom 2024 Opening Night Live is scheduled to kick off, where you can watch it, and what Switch news you might see along the way.

When is Gamescom 2024 Opening Night Live?

Gamescom 2024's Opening Night Live takes place on Tuesday 20th August 2024. You can find all of the different time zone information below:

  • North America: 11am PDT / 12pm MDT / 1pm CDT / 2pm EDT
  • UK/Ire: 7pm BST
  • Europe: 8pm CEST / 9pm EEST
  • Asia/Oceania: 3am (Wed) JST / 2am (Wed) AWST / 4am (Wed) AEST

Where can I watch Opening Night Live?

As always, the Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase will be viewable on the Game Awards YouTube channel and its Twitch channel.

Just like previous events, though, we'll be streaming it live right here on Nintendo Life. So if you want to check out the event and chat alongside your fellow community members (and even one of us!), then be sure to tune in at the designated time to take part.

How long is Opening Night Live?

We're not sure exactly how long the Opening Night Live showcase will be, but going off previous events, we're going to guess that it'll clock in at around 2 hours, give or take.

Will Nintendo be at Opening Night Live?

Unlikely. Nintendo has already confirmed that it won't be at Gamescom in a general sense, so we're confident in stating that it won't be participating in the Opening Night Live showcase either.

Consider what's in the pipeline, too. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a little more than a month away at the time of writing, and it just received a fairly substantial trailer from Nintendo itself. We can't see the Big N showcasing the likes of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD or Metroid Prime 4: Beyond at Gamescom if it's not on the show floor, so it's probably safe to say that the company won't feature in Opening Night Live.

What games will be shown during Opening Night Live?

Just because Nintendo itself won't be at Gamescom, that doesn't mean there won't be any Switch games at all. Sure, it'll mostly showcase games for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but we're certain a few Switch games will crop up here and there.

So far, Geoff Keighley has confirmed the following:

Sega has been known to show up at Keighley's events, with Sonic Superstars being showcased at last year's Gamescom ONL event. It's likely, then, that we might get another peek at the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations for the Switch at this year's event.


Will you be tuning into Gamescom Opening Night Live this year? Which games are you hoping to see? Let us know with a comment down below.