Innovative Business Models Counter Risk in Next-Gen Games Development

Debate Emerging New Business Models at Apply Serious Games 2006, London

11th April, 2006 - High-profile and eminent industry figures from the serious games world: Darren Pryke of Cisco and Jeff Tseng of Secret Level will lead the debate on new business models arising from serious games, at the recently announced Apply Serious Games 2006 conference in London, May 25-26th.

Martine Parry, from organizer Apply Events stated: "Serious games are increasingly big business and the emerging business models are fascinating. The serious games business model presented by Secret Level's re-purposing of America's Army: Rise of a Soldier, presented an opportunity for: the publisher (Ubisoft) to take a tested game to mass market, with an existing player-base; the organization that bank-rolled its development (US Military) to develop a revenue stream and the developer to realize more development work and potential royalties." She added: "This is a 'Triple Win' situation in a market that, with the prohibitive next-gen cost-base, needs to find innovative ways of finding funding for development and mitigating risk. There is no reason why this model cannot work for other organizations which are traditionally outside the game industry, such as Cisco, for example."

Darren Pryke works with Nader Nanjiani, a well-known supporter and user of Serious Games who has spoken at the Serious Games Summit in DC. He brings an important perspective as an end-user of serious games within a multi-national company whilst Jeff Tseng provides an expert view of taking a serious game and re-purposing it as a mass market title - focusing on both design and business issues. Both are clearly growing markets for games developers and publishers to target.

Darren agrees with Nader Nanjiani of Cisco, who said: "Cisco certified audiences have responded favorably to the use of online games as a tool for learning. In fact, the results were remarkable. We continue to develop engaging tools for use and adoption by our customers - and learning games is one of them. "

While David Amor of Relentless Software, stated- "In the past I've written off serious games as being something that wouldn't be able to compete commercially with development for traditional videogames, but that's proved to be an incorrect assumption. In reality there are plenty of opportunities for game developers within serious games, both commercially and creatively. "

At ASG 2006, we will uniquely debate these issues and more that are relevant to an industry that is beginning to show that it means business - serious business.

With 21 confirmed speakers, and counting. And Early bird closing on 15th April, delegates had better be quick to take advantage of the fantastic 45-60% discounts.

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ASG Named Speakers

· Professor Steve Molyneux, Director, Learning Lab & ADL

· Jeff Tseng, Creative Director, Secret Level

· Frank Boosman, COO, 3D Solve

· Darren Pryke, Manager Rich Media Business Communications, Cisco

· Prof Bob Stone, University of Birmingham

· Ernest Adams, Games Designer, International Hobo

· Hugh Mason, Partner, Pembridge

· Paul Flanagan, Executive in Residence, Ariadne Capital

· Chris Brannigan, MD, Caspian Learning

· Ron Edwards, MD, Ambient Performance

· Richard McGreevy, Former Head Training Commercial Union/ Norwich Union

· Mo Touman, BT Group CTO Innovation

· Dave Sharp, Consultant Digital City

· Vaughan Waller, Chairman e-Learning Network

· Dr Ken Catchpole, Industrial Psychologist, John Radcliffe Hospital

· Jon Weinbren, Creative Director, Imaginary Productions

· Paul Hollins, Manager of Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (CETIS)

· Jeff Woyda, Immersive Education

· Dr Andrew Burn, London Knowledge

· Asst. Prof. Simon Egenfeldt-Niles, Center Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen

· Tasha Buch, Center Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen

About ASG 2006

Apply Serious Games 2006 (ASG 2006) is a structured professional conference addressing the core practical issues that are important to all the stakeholders in Serious Games. We address: design, branded learning games, development, tools, techniques. We will also address funding and business model.

There is a massive 45 - 60% discount for Early Birds until 15th April. It is wise to book now to take advantage of this and to secure your place.

More information: www.applyseriousgames.com

Contact: Martine Parry, Apply Events: + 44 (0) 7788 191252

About Apply Events

Apply Events is the event management division of business consultancy Kezos Ltd - the company that produced the recent CGI Festival in London and produced GDC Europe in 2004 on behalf of CMP. Apply Events is organising ASG 2006. www.applyevents.com