Sonic's giving Gamescom a miss

Gamescom is Europe's equivalent to E3, the biggest consumer and trade show for video games in the region. It's set to take place in Cologne, Germany from 15-19th August, though it will do so without two of the biggest names in the industry.

Nintendo has already confirmed that it won't be attending this year, instead promising a number of events throughout Europe to demonstrate and show off Wii U and new 3DS titles. The latest big name to confirm that it won't be attending, as reported by gamesindustry.biz, is the house that Sonic built, SEGA. The famous company has been enduring a fairly rough patch with recent financial losses, but gave the following reason for its Gamescom no show.

Sega has made the decision not to attend Gamescom this year. Gamescom 2011 was a very successful show for us and continues to be the most important European event in the calendar.

Unfortunately the release timing of our 2012 AAA titles and new projects don't work with the mid-August scheduling of the show. The decision will not mean that Sega will never attend Gamescom in the future, this was simply a commercial decision made for 2012.

It's disappointing news for SEGA fans planning to attend, as well as for the organisers themselves, though there will undoubtedly still be plenty of developers on the scene.

[source gamesindustry.biz]