How to watch the Gamescom 2020 Opening Night Live show

Gamescom is the E3 of Europe, and like other conventions in 2020 it's canceled the parts that involve crowds. It'll still kick off with a big livestream this Thursday, though. The show is called Opening Night Live and it's hosted by Geoff Keighley, a man who hosts so many videogame shows it would be more efficient if we only pointed out when he isn't hosting one.

According to Keighley, the two-hour show will feature some new game announcements, but will mostly be about "updates from announced titles." As of Sunday, the show contained announcements regarding 38 games.

Opening Night Live will be broadcast from Los Angeles, and will take place live, though there won't be an audience. Here's when and where to watch, and what some of those 38 games will be:

Opening Night Live start time and where to watch

Opening Night Live will stream on YouTube (embedded above) and Twitch on Thursday, August 27 at 11 am Pacific. If you don't see your timezone below, find it here.

• 11 am PDT
• 2 pm EDT
• 7 pm BST
• 8 pm CEST

The games and announcements to expect

Opening Night Live will mostly feature announcements about games we already know about, or that are already out. Here are the companies and games we currently know will be there:

• 2K (Mafia: Definitive Edition)
• Activision (Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War)
• Bandai Namco (Little Nightmares 2)
• Bethesda (Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part One)
• Blizzard (WoW: Shadowlands, Afterlives animated series)
• Bungie (Destiny 2: Beyond Light)
• Deep Silver (Chorus)
• Devolver (Fall Guys Season Two)
• EA (Star Wars Squadrons, New Sims 4 DLC, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond)
• Frontier
• Focus Home Interactive
• Gearbox
• Headup Games
• PlayStation (Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time)
• Proletariat (Spellbreak)
• Warner Bros Games (Lego Star Wars : The Skywalker Saga)
• Xbox Game Studios
• "And more!"

Everything in that list is confirmed, and there are other things we can easily guess at. Gearbox, for example, is probably showing off Borderlands 3 DLC and Godfall. Warner Bros plans to show off the next Lego Star Wars game, but it might also talk about Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, two games it just announced last weekend.

There are a ton of things Microsoft could talk about. To name a few: Halo Infinite (which just got delayed to 2021), the new Fable, the new Forza, Psychonauts 2, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, the new Xbox hardware, and Wasteland 3, which we just reviewed.

Sony, meanwhile, will probably stick to PS5 exclusives. (See all of the big new console games that are and aren't announced for PC here.)

EA's big thing will be Star Wars Squadrons, and it's also bringing a new Sims 4 pack and a look at its Medal of Honor VR game. Activation has said we'll see more from Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War, and Blizzard's got the WoW: Shadowlands expansion coming up and a new Warcraft animated show. They haven't said so, but maybe we'll see a bit of Diablo 4, too? I can hope.

We'll post about the big announcements as they happen, so if you miss the Opening Night Live stream, check our news page for everything you missed.