Apple and Google look to up their presence at Gamescom 2026 as court drama continues

Google and Apple are both stepping up their Gamescom presence this year.

While both platform holders have been hands-off in prior years, Games@Google’s Tony Clark has now said Google Play’s Hall 7 activation is its biggest regional consumer push and first major Gamescom presence in a decade, while Apple is running three developer sessions at Gamescom Dev on August 25, a day before the main show.

Google’s showing includes a rewards hub, a live arena featuring Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja, and multigaming stations running Dave the Diver (Mintrocket), Subway Surfers City (Sybo), eFootball (Konami), Wobbly Life (RubberBandGames/Curve Games) and Asphalt Legends (Gameloft).

Google is also running a publisher/developer “Play After Hours” session on August 26, on studio partnerships and retention.

Apple’s developer sessions include a showcase of Apple’s hardware/software for game devs, Cyberpunk 2077 on Mac with CD Projekt Red’s Paweł Sasko and Jakub Smodrzak, and bringing games to the App Store with Funday Games’ Emil Kjaehr, per Apple’s Begüm Ağma Erdal.

The goodwill comes days after Apple proposed new commissions on purchases made via external links in iOS apps, in its ongoing Epic Games case: 15% for standard apps, 10% for News/Video/Mini Apps partner programs and subscription renewals, 5% for Small Business Program developers. Apple’s filing conceded that its actual costs for these transactions are close to zero.

Google is facing similar pressure. A judge has ordered Google to make it easier to install rival Android app stores, after Epic’s lawyers showed a search for “store for apps” on Google Play surfaced no third-party stores at all, and that the one rival store currently listed – Aptoide – showed a “View” button rather than “Install.”

The judge called it “anticompetitive friction” and gave Google a week to fix it.