Category Archives: LA Games Conference 2008
Is Hollywood Killing the Game Industry?
There’s a love-hate relationship between Hollywood and gaming, and tremendous friction around licensed properties and what they mean for the gaming industry. In this panel, the experts explore where the relationship is symbiotic, where it is destructive, the underlying sources of friction, and how the relationship is now evolving. This is a continuation of our live blogging at the eighth panel from Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008.
The Challenges and Opportunities for Brands and Games
In this panel, the experts are focusing on advertising challenges and opportunities in games. They discuss what works and what doesn’t for in game advertising. They focus on what brands really want and how game companies need to start speaking a language advertisers understand. This is a continuation of our live blogging at the fourth panel from Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008.
Panelists
Christian Batist, SVP Marketing, Sulake Inc. (Habbo Hotel)
Barry Schaffer, President, Promotional Currency
Julie Shumaker, SVP, Sales & Marketing, Double Fusion
Keith Kane, Co-Founder, SVP, Sales & Marketing, Giant Realm
Mark Friedler, Internet Advertising, Media, Games Entrepreneur/Founder, GameDaily
Moderator: Chris Lang, SVP, Research Strategies, SmithGeiger, LLC
How Will Mobile Games Break Out?
We continue our live blogging at the sixth panel from Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008. The mobile games panel focuses on the question, what’s it going to take for mobile games to go mainstream, exploring differences between the US and international markets, and different business models that are being used to tackle the mobile phenomenon.
Mobile Gaming – A Puppy with Very Large Paws
Greg Ballard, CEO & President, Glu Mobile spoke at the LA Games Conference. Greg’s talk is titled Mobile Games 2008: The Right Stuff.
Glu Media is about a $100 million company in the mobile game space. In 2003 the industry was very fragmented. In 2004, Greg thought that an industry consolidation would take place with companies like Verisign, Yahoo, Real buying mobile game companies. It didn’t turn out that way. Now 50% of the market is controlled by 3 publishers: EA(25.6%), Glu (14%) and gameloft (11.8). The rest of the market is made up of huge numbers of publishers. It’s a healthy business for those that are getting big, but not so great for the smaller players.
Professional Gamers = Professional Athletes?
Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel is the first gaming superstar. He talks about what it takes to succeed as a gamer – it’s not that different from succeeding as an athlete – and the “Fatal1ty” brand that he wants to build into the Nike of the videogame space. Ken Rutkowski interviews him for Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008.
LA Games Conference Featured Interview
Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel
Interviewed by Ken Rutkowski, Host, Ken Radio
Innovations Driving the Future of Connected Games
In this panel at the LA Games Conference, the expert panel talks about innovations in connected games. What does it mean to be connected? What are the big changes and what’s next? This is a continuation of our live blogging at the fifth panel from Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008.
Panelists
Keive Huffman, SVP, Business Development & Sales, Championship Gaming Series
Robert Norton, VP, Business Development, King.com
Rob Uhrich, Senior Director, Digital Markets, PaymentOne
Brent Hurley, Strategic Partner Developments, YouTube
Jason Rubinstein, Senior Director, Entertainment, Mobile Devices, Motorola
Moderator: Jay Moore, Head of Special Ops, The Strategery Group
What Makes For a Killer Game?
These gaming industry experts share their perspective on what makes a game great – in terms of game play and financial results – and what new technologies and capabilities will be changing the face of killer games going forward. This is a continuation of our live blogging at the fourth panel from Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008.
Matthew Bellows, VP, Consumer Strategy, Vivox
Catherine Herdlick, Dir., Game Production, GameLab/Co-Founder, Come Out & Play
Spencer Hunt, VP, Game Production & Digital Dev., Sony Pictures Television Int’l
Ariella Lehrer, President/CEO, Legacy Interactive
Chris Petrovic, VP, Digital Media, Playboy Media Group
Moderator: Scott Steinberg, Managing Director, Embassy Multimedia Consultants
Vivendi Game Strategy Discussion
Cindy Cook, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer of Vivendi Games is being interviewed by Geoff Keighley, producer of Spike TV’s GTTV at the LA Games Conference.
Geoff asks about the explosion of the music category. How do you work with the music companies?
Cindy says that the music business is actively looking for new outlets for their content. The interest level for music companies to be involved with games has reached a high point. First it was just background, then it became jukebox material, then artists became characters in the game, and then music became the game.
Connected Gaming
Chris Early, General Manager, Windows Gaming, Microsoft gave the end of day keynote at the LA Games Conference 2008. Chris describes himself as the Windows guy in the Xbox division. He focuses on connected gaming. Connected gaming has evolved from single device to cross platform connected games. That is being able to play Xbox games vs. people on the Windows platform. He points to ShadowRun as an example of this type of game.
Are We All Casual Gamers Yet?
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Find out why there really is no difference between casual and hardcore gamers, and what it will take for the rest of the world to become players of casual games in the third panel from Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008.
Casual Games: What’s Next Now that Everyone’s Involved?
Peter Blacklow, Pres., WorldWinner (Liberty Media subsidiary), EVP, Digital, GSN
Kate Connally, Vice President, AddictingGames, MTV Networks
Eric Lavanchy, Director of Gaming, Endemol USA
Matt Turetzky, VP, Non-PC Games, RealNetworks, Inc.
Dave Madden, EVP, Sales, Marketing & Bus. Development, WildTangent
Moderator: Mike Vorhaus, Managing Director, Frank N. Magid Associates
