GameHorizon Conference
Thirteen new speakers lined up for next week's event at NewcastleGateshead.
FOR TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2008
With just over a week left until the inaugural GameHorizon Conference kicks off in NewcastleGateshead, 13 major new names have been added to the already impressive speaker line-up – including senior representatives from Ubisoft, Jagex, CCP, IGA Worldwide Eutechnyx and Midway.
Some of the most influential figures from the worldwide videogames industry will head to the BALTIC Flour Mill on the banks of the River Tyne on June 18-19 for the new, future-facing conference, which is aimed at keeping senior executives ahead of the curve.
With just days to go, the line-up of 27 speakers looks exciting, with some of the biggest players in the industry getting ready to share their thoughts about the future direction of this fast-growing industry. The new speakers are:
• Laurent Malville, game content manager at Ubisoft
• Emeric Thoa, lead game designer at Ubisoft
• Ian Livingstone, creative director at Eidos
• Charles Cecil, founder of Revolution Software
• Simon Usiskin, portal director at Spill Group
• Geoff Iddison, CEO of Jagex
• Sean Himmerick, executive producer and studio head at Midway
• Maurice Suckling, director of The Mustard Corporation
• Thor Gunnarson, VP of business development at CCP
• Darren Jobling, director of business development at Eutechnyx
• Ed Bartlett, VP of publisher relations, Europe, at IGA Worldwide
• Angie Moxham of 3 Monkeys Communications
• Chris Rycroft-Davis, former executive editor of The Sun
Carri Cunliffe, director of the GameHorizon Conference, says: "It's fantastic news that so many of these highly influential people have agreed to speak at the conference.
"The line-up is one of the best you'll see at any event this year, and should make the event a must for publishers, developers, format holders, middleware and hardware firms looking to arm themselves with the knowledge they'll need to develop the best strategies for the future of their company."
Highlights at the conference are expected to include:
Chris Satchell, General Manager and Chief XNA Architect at Microsoft, delivering a keynote about the role XNA Game Studio will play in the democratisation of game development.
Seamus Blackley, head of the games department at one of Hollywood's most powerful agencies, CAA, speaking about the unique touch points where television, music, film, the web and advertising converge.
Ubisoft's Emeric Thoa and Laurent Malville giving a live demonstration of Tom Clancy's End War, which they say will mark and end to the PC's domination of the RTS genre, covering the challenges they faced in the game's production and how the firm had to innovate to overcome them.
Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion, speaking about the groundbreaking Euphoria technology his company created for GTA IV – which synthesises all character interactions on the fly, freeing gameplay from the limitations of pre-canned animations – and revealing how Rockstar is using the technology to give users an interactive experience of unprecedented immersiveness.
Colin Macdonald, studio manager at Realtime Worlds, who will look at how customisation will allow for strong personal expression within their new MMO title, APB.
A range of tickets for the conference – including one-day and full conference passes – are available at www.gamehorizonconference.com from £175.
ENDS
Notes for editors
Event details
Date: 18 -19 June 2008
Venue: The BALTIC Flour Mill, NewcastleGateshead
To see the full list of speakers visit www.gamehorizonconference.com/speakers
About the GameHorizon Conference
The GameHorizon Conference is a new, exclusive annual event where the world's leading games industry executives will gather to debate, share and learn about the business, vision and future of games. www.gamehorizonconference.com
The GameHorizon Conference is supported by a range of partners, including: Develop, GamesIndustry.biz, Autodesk, Blue GFX, Audiomotion, the Tyne & Wear Development Company, Quickstart Global, Animex, Speechly Bircham, Tiga, GameRepublic, UKTI, One NorthEast and the European Regional Development Fund.
For more information, to request media passes and interviews:
Lewis Harrison; Codeworks GameHorizon; +44 (0)191 556 1128; +44 (0)7867 674 994; lewis.harrison@codeworks.net