German Chancellor Angela Merkel is bloody loving Gamescom

Update, August 22, 4.40 pm: Gamescom has released an official quote from Merkel on the opening of the show, to whit:

‘Computer and video games are of the utmost importance as cultural assets, as a driving force for innovation and as an economic factor, which is why I was also very pleased to come to Cologne to provide this developing industry with my recommendation.’

Original story, August 22: Chancellor Angela Merkel, head of Germany’s government, has officially opened Gamescom in Cologne this year, and is having a marvelous time. This is the first time Merkel has attended Gamescom since the expo started in 2009, even though she’s been Chancellor since 2005. The fact that Germany is soon to hold an election has no bearing on this.

Merkel gave a speech at the opening of the show that, according to some wonderfully helpful German speakers on Twitter, hit some fairly predictable notes: admitting Germany isn’t as good at supporting developers compared to other nations like Canada, Poland and France, but they want to improve that; praising the educational aspects of games; mentioning that broadband speeds in some areas of Germany need to be improved; &c.

Merkel was then treated to a tour of some games on the show floor. Here is Angela Merkel playing Farming Simulator:

It seems that Angela Merkel is having good time playing Farming Simulator 17 at #gamescom2017 pic.twitter.com/qvIAOpTE6h

— Farming Simulator (@farmingsim) August 22, 2017

Here is Angela Merkel looking at a Minecraft version of Angela Merkel:

Gamescom continues until this Saturday.