GDC Creates Casual Games Summit '101' to Educate about the Space, '201' for
Deeper Discussions of Design, Licensing, Portal Relationships, Revenue
Streams and More
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Game Developers Conference
(GDC), CMP Technology's annual conference dedicated to the art, science and
business of games, has expanded its Casual Games Summit into a two-day
series of sessions to better serve the fast-growing casual games market.
Sessions include programming for both casual game novices and
professionals. The Casual Games Summit will take place March 5-6, 2007 at
the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco as part of the 2007 Game
Developers Conference.
Day one of the Summit, titled "Casual Games Summit 101," aims to
educate those new to casual games about getting into the industry with
introductory sessions on design principles, art direction, technology,
business models, the key publishers and more. Day two, "Casual Games Summit
201," provides an arena for sharing and debate among casual game industry
veterans on a variety of topics, including downloadable games on the
consoles, the evolving relationships between developers/publishers and
portals, the use of licenses, increasing revenue through international
opportunities, design innovation and more.
"The casual game market has grown to be an integral part of the
videogame industry, making gamers out of anyone with a PC, a mobile phone
or an iPod," said Meggan Scavio, Senior Conference Manager of the Game
Developers Conference. "The GDC is here to help the entirety of the game
industry come together and grow, and we felt the expansion of the Casual
Games Summit to be the natural step as this segment of the market matures."
The Casual Games Summit brings together all of the key players of the
casual games space, from the leading developers and publishers to the
biggest licensors and portals. Speakers include representatives from Adobe,
Shockwave.com, Big Fish, Funkitron, Gamelab, GoPets, Her Interactive, iWin,
JoJu Games, Kongregate, Oberon, Microsoft, MuddyC, Nickelodeon, PlayFirst,
PopCap, Real, Reflexive, Sandlot Games, Sony Online Entertainment, Sun,
Three Rings, Twofish, Wild Tangent, Yahoo and Zylom.
"Videogames are for everyone, even those who don't fall into the
category we tend to think of as the traditional hardcore gamer," said John
Welch, President and CEO of PlayFirst, Inc., and co-organizer of the Casual
Games Summit, with Steve Meretzky of Boffo Games and Dave Rohrl of PopCap
Games. "The Casual Games Summit provides a forum for everyone making -- or
wanting to make -- quality games for the incredibly wide and varied casual
gamer demographic. Historically, people have thought of this segment as
being largely made up of women over the age of 35. While that remains a
critical segment, we are seeing two major new market trends:
diversification of demographics and the emergence of a segment of
super-dedicated and not so 'casual' casual gamers. We'll be exploring
topics like these over the two-day Summit."
The speaker line-up, session descriptions and registration for the
total Game Developers Conference, including the Casual Games Summit, are
available at http://www.gdconf.com. Press registration is also currently open.
More than 12,500 game industry professionals will convene during GDC,
the world's largest games industry-only event dedicated to the advancement
of resources, tools and technologies used to create interactive
entertainment. The GDC features more than 300 lectures, panels, tutorials
and round-table discussions on a comprehensive selection of game
development topics taught by leading industry experts.
About the CMP Game Group (http://www.cmpgame.com)
A core provider of essential information to the professional game
industry, the CMP Game Group offers market-defining content, and drives
community through the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine,
the Webby Award-winning Gamasutra.com, the Serious Games Summit D.C., GDC
Mobile, GDC Europe, the Independent Games Festival, the Game Developers
Choice Awards, GDC London, the London Games Summit, GDCTV, GDCRadio, and
the GDC Focus On event series. For more information, please visit
http://www.cmpgame.com.
About CMP Technology (http://www.cmp.com)
CMP Technology is a marketing solutions company serving the technology
industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information
brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than
any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of
access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and
buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is
a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com), a
global provider of news distribution and specialist information services
with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.
SOURCE CMP Game Group
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Related links:
http://www.gdconf.com
http://www.cmp.com http://www.cmpgame.com
CONTACT:
Sibel Sunar, sibel@fortyseven.com, or Brian
Rubin, brian@fortyseven.com, both of fortyseven communications,
+1-323-658-1200, for CMP Game Group; or Ellen Holbrook of CMP
Technology, +1-415-947-6219, eholbrook@cmp.com
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