Games Convention Online is no more

Previously known as The Leipzig Games Convention and Europe's one-time largest games event, the trade-only GCO has been forced to shut its doors, citing a 'lack of funding'.

A statement on the GCO website reads:

"The day has come for GCO to say goodbye.

"Despite your fantastic support over the last two years, we have been unable to put GAMES CONVENTION ONLINE on a firm financial footing. The ideas and topics we created together were innovative and we certainly had the right thoughts as far as the development prospects of online games were concerned.

"Unfortunately, in the end, the idea on its own didn't suffice to organize an economically successful trade fair and congress. The Leipziger Messe will naturally continue to provide a platform for young innovative branches of industry, but this needs to be supported and developed by the majority of the industry concerned. Despite all joint efforts, we were still unable to achieve this."

"The Leipzig Games Convention evolved into the Games Convention Online after Germany's Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware (German Federal Association for Entertainment Software) announced in 2008 that it would move support for an annual games convention to Cologne and focus on GamesCom.

"At the time, a lack of ability to grow the show in Leipzig was blamed with a statement from BIU announcing,

"It was predicted that 200,000 visitors would come to the Games Convention in 2007, but in the end there was only a 1 percent rise over the previous year to 185,000. The hotels in Leipzig and the surrounding areas were completely packed out, and another problem was the lack of international flights to the region."

Leipzig, it seems, was a victim of it's own success.

GamesCom takes place in Cologne in August and is open to the public from 18th-21st.

Thanks, Gamespot.