The show hasn't even started yet but Gamescom organizers have already announced the nominees for the 2014 Best Of Show awards. How, you may ask, can nominees already be selected when the games haven't been seen and the show has not opened yet? Well, because they have been seen by a jury of journalists.

Koch Media, the publisher responsible for Deep Silver - who publishes Dead Island and owns Saints Row maker Volition - has denied reports in a German paper that the company is up for sale.

German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported that Koch Media has brought in investment bank UBS to the company to find a suitable buyer, with multiple sources claiming a sale was in the works.

German automaker Volkswagen has launched a design contest encouraging students to "create a cool video game car for Volkswagen." Those individual students or teams interested in the contest, found here, have until August 15 to create cars and video game scenarios for them to be played out in.

Volkswagen does have one reasonable stipulation; that "the typical character of a Volkswagen should at least be somewhat recognizable."

The contest will be judged by Volkswagen design chief Klaus Bischoff.

A German court has dismissed two cases - one against Apple and another filed against HTC - by patent-assertion entity IPCom. The court rejected the company's assertions in both cases that its 3G/UMTS cellular standard patent was violated. The company was asking the court to award it $2.2 billion in its case against Apple.

The decision comes on the heels of a letter sent to the EU signed by Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, and other tech companies deriding entities like IPCom, whose only business is to file lawsuits against other companies and extract settlements.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during her weekly podcast that she is proposing to other European nations - most notably France - to build their own communications network to help improve data protection. Chancellor Merkel described a network that would not have to automatically pass through the United States.

According to the web site for law firm Osborne Clarke, the results of the German court case against Valve for not allowing Steam accounts to be transferred or the ability to sell pre-owned Steam games are in.

German mobile development studio Fishlabs has been acquired by Koch Media, According to a report in PocketGamer - citing reports from German news outlets Gamesmarket and Newsslash - the company was purchased by an unnamed buyer. Later Koch managing director Dr. Klemens Kundratitz confirmed the purchase in a statement sent to Polygon. The studio behind space sim series Galaxy on Fire, filed for bankruptcy protection in October.

According to new research from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Charité University Medicine St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus (in Leipzig, Germany) playing video games on a regular basis can improve spatial orientation, memory formation, strategic planning, and fine motor skill. This new revelation comes from a study conducted in Berlin using the popular and classic Nintendo 64 platformer Super Mario 64.

German gaming site Games Welt reported last night (thanks to Cheater87 for sending this in) that the BPJM (Bundeprüfstelle für Jugendgefährende Medien), Germany's entertainment software self-regulation body, has refused to rate Capcom's Xbox One launch title, Dead Rising 3, effectively banning it from release within the region.

Gamescom, the annual gaming event that took place in Cologne, Germany last week was a big hit according to organizers. Organizers of the event announced details on attendance, exhibits, and more. According to the data it released, 340,000 people attended the event last week. It is an astounding number compared to last year's attendance numbers: 275,000 showed up in Cologne last year to take in all the latest games and gadgets. All told, attendance was up 32 percent this year...

According to an Ars Technica report, Germany’s justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said on Monday that she favored even stronger European Union rules that would enhance data protection and that companies in the United States who don't abide by those standards should be barred from doing business in the European Market.

According to Gaming Blend, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZVB) is reportedly looking to challenge Valve's stance on digital trade-ins in court before the end of the year. The VZVB is pursuing legal action regarding Steam's inability for its customers to resell the software they buy. The group had promised in February that it planned to sue Valve.

GamesIndustry International is reporting that EA Phenomic has been closed. The studio responsible for developing Spellforce and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances is believed to employ around 60 people at one time, though the actual number of employees it had before closing is unknown as of this writing. While EA would not comment on the particulars of the studio's closure, it did issue a statement explaining why it had to shut Phenomic down:

Germany’s internal security chief Hans-Peter Friedrich, has suggested to German citizens that it might be wise to avoid American services in the wake of the NSA PRISM scandal and other activities that involved targets in Europe. According to an Associated Press report, Friedrich said on Wednesday that "whoever fears their communication is being intercepted in any way should use services that don’t go through American servers."

Update: This Kotaku story citing an unnamed Microsoft rep. notes that the Kinect does not have to be on all the time:

"Yes, you can turn the system completely off," the Microsoft rep said. "This would use no power and turn everything off. We’ll share more details about how it all works later."  Article author Stephen Totilo speculates that this involves pressing the console's power button.

German online game developer InnoGames will host a Game Jam in its Hamburg office on June 21. Participants will be charged with developing computer games with a team in a 48-hour period. Teams will have to create graphics, game design and programming from scratch. This is the sixth game jam held by the company. A team from InnoGames will also be participating in the event.

German game developer and publisher InnoGames announced that its online browser-based strategy game, Forge of Empires, has been named the "Best Browsergame" by the "Deutscher Computerspielepreis" (or German Computer Game Award) and has won a 50,000 Euros prize. While that is exciting news for the developer, the company also revealed that it will divide the prize money up amongst its employees. Forge of Empires beat out Skylancer: Battle for Horizon (Chimera Entertainment) and The Great Jitters - Haunted Hunt (kunst-stoff) to win.

German browser games operator Travian has laid off up to 60 employees due to "internal restructuring," according to a GamesIndustry International report - as reported by its German sister site. Multiple sources have confirmed the move with GII's German reporter during the Quo Vadis event, which is taking place this week in Berlin.

TopWare Interactive is working with Groupees to offer the Groupees / TopWare Interactive Bundle to help raise money for the World Wide Fund for Nature in Germany. For every bundle sold, 10 percent of the profits will go to the organization's ongoing efforts to protect endangered species in the region.

Remember those ridiculous age restrictions on Wii U eShop content in Europe because Nintendo of Europe is based out of Germany and subject to German laws about content? Yeah, well those silly restrictions have been removed much to the delight of our Wii U owning brothers and sisters in various regions throughout Europe including the UK, according to Daily Joypad.

The German consumer advocacy group The Federation of German Consumer Association has filed an official complaint against Valve Software for its Steam's end-user license agreement because it does not allow consumers to resell digital content. The European High Court ruled last year that digital content games can be sold. The complaint against Valve filed with the German courts is directly related to that ruling.

Germany's highest court has ruled that Internet is such an important part of modern everyday life that when someone gets cut off from it they deserve some sort of compensation. The German high court made this determination based on a case involving a German citizen who was disconnected from his DSL line in 2008 because of some unspecified technical error. The citizen was offline for two months and he was angry enough about it to sue the ISP for his expenses (he used his mobile phone instead of his wireline VoIP service) as well as €50 ($67) per day because he had no connection.

The brutal murder of a 31-year-old woman is being attributed to the tenuous association of the killer's time playing Final Fantasy XIV. These conclusions are being drawn by two German tabloids, according to this Kotaku report. The 31-year-old woman, Katrin M. (the last names of both the victim and the killer are being withheld) was reportedly murdered by 18- or 19-year old Marco F, who stabbed the victim 18 times using a katana.

While adult Australian gamers get to enjoy the latest Ninja Gaiden game thanks to the country's new R18+ rating, their German peers appear to be SOL.

Nintendo of Europe has finally explained the odd restrictions on 18+ content (which includes reading information, looking at screenshots, and watching video) in place on the European Wii U eShop. It turns out that German law is affecting when everyone (adults and children) can look at mature content. Last week Eurogamer found that it could not look at information on the eShop during certain times (11pm to 3am). This included info on the 18+ rated games ZombieU and Assassin's Creed 3.

Google-owned Motorola has failed to ban sales of the Xbox 360 in both Germany and the United States related to patents the system uses. Motorola and Microsoft have been in a very public court battle over royalty payments related to patents owned by Motorola that Microsoft is using for the Xbox 360 system. Motorola claims that the patents being used by Microsoft are worth $4 billion a year in royalty payments, while Microsoft says that those patents are worth only $1 million a year. U.S.

It looks like the follow-up to the Zombie-themed action-RPG Dead Island won't be coming to Germany. In a recent interview with PCGamesN, Dead Island: Riptide creative producer Sebastian Reichert said this was due to the country's strict guidelines on the sale of violent media.

Samarion S.E., an investor in online games, has taken over one of Europe's biggest online game companies Gamigo from newspaper publisher Axelrod Springer AG. Gamigo publishes and operates free-to-play MMORPGs and browser-based games. Axelrod Springer AG purchased a majority stake in the German company four years ago. Now it wants to focus on the "non-gaming aspects of its digital business" so it has decided to unload its holdings in Gamigo.

Earlier this week Germany's Federation of German Consumer Organizations (or vzbv) called on Valve to explain the changes it made to the Steam end-user license agreement back in August. The vzbv found that the changes Valve made to its EULA were unfair to consumers and that Steam had no mechanism for allowing its users to trade games per a recent European High Court ruling. It required Valve to respond by September 26 to their insistence the company change its policy "restricting access to content based on the forfeiture of signing the new EULA."

It isn't particularly sophisticated, but klutzGames' Windows Phone 7 release of LeaderFlip does let players (particularly those in Germany) have a bit of fun with Chancellor of Germany and Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union Angela Merkel -- I mean Angie Makel. The game lets you play as a caricature of the German Chancellor who you must send to the moon by flipping her upwards on platforms using a simple game mechanic and a variety of power-ups that include beer, sausage, and beans.