Preview: DICE 2011

We're trying to attract the same audience; we're just trying to be a little more inclusive with new players and new opportunities. That all mixes together, and the EAs of this world - the established game companies - are all working hard to make inroads into that space.

I think it you put all these people into a room, there's a tonne of creativity and a lot of opportunities So it's not that we're looking away from the core industry at all - that's the lifeblood - it's more about how we get all the people in the room...

And you know how DICE is - they get in the room, they make deals, they talk creatively, and then they leave with new ideas. If anything, it's about bringing the established players together, putting some of the new players in with them, and seeing what we come up with. I think there'll be some incredible things to come out of the conference.

I'd say they'll leave the conference with, even through the industry's faced some economic challenges in the past couple of years, a sense that there are new horizons to explore. As you know, you can take core console games right now and technology's getting to the point where you can move those around on different platforms.

I think they're going to come out of the conference with the feeling that it's a reinvigorated industry - I think we've come through a period where the recession's hit some people pretty hard, some platforms have sprung up with new competition - but I think they're going to come out thinking that creative genius will win out, no matter what platform. And it'll be a co-operative thing, across platforms and people, and new creative talent. I'm very excited about that.

Certainly Red Dead was a game I liked, and played a lot personally. Even though I guess that from a physical gameplay perspective it was similar to other things that Take-Two had done in the past, it had a different bent to it. No one's ever really done that genre well - but it was well-executed and a lot of fun.

Then there's Mass Effect 2, an extraordinary game that was a lot of fun. And some things that popped up that might have been a surprise to some people, and I think it's speaks to the Zeitgeist of the industry right now.

Our peer panels are all game-makers, all creators, all members of the Academy - and for them to put forward Limbo and Angry Birds was a testament to the current in the business these days. It's a testament to the Academy that those games are put up, even though some might say that they're a little less sophisticated or interesting - but I don't think that. People are really getting engaged, and that's entirely new demographics.

Not to get personal here, but my mum plays Angry Birds, and she's never played a game in her life, other than if I put it in front of her and make her look at it. Here's something where you have a mid-seventies woman who's saying she wants to embrace games - that's a beautiful thing for our industry.

Jay loves games, and he amuses our demographic - there's no question about that.

Well, some of the debates are going to be really interesting, and I think what we've tried to do is find if there's someone outside the industry that can be a compelling speaker around topics we face every day. Beverly Harrison from Intel is an interesting example of that - she's working on some really fascinating user or player interfaces in the consumer world, and I think that from an intellectual perspective she might bring a view that we don't normally look at. It should be really fascinating for game-makers.

And we've tried to do that - to pick people that have something to say that will be relevant to our audience, but they don't necessarily come from the business. I think that will be a positive thing for the conference.

Certainly what Joseph's done in the past, and what we're trying to do this year, is put up provocative speakers that spur conversation. I'd hope that at the end of each day, in all the social and business interaction, that they'll walk away thinking they've not looked at something in that way before - that it makes sense in a way, and they'll take it back to their studio and do something with it.

That's really what DICE should be all about.

Obviously it's a well-deserved honour, and we're lucky to have him open Friday. You seldom find an individual that has made a tremendous mark on two separate businesses - and he's done that, certainly with EA and now with Kleiner.

With Kleiner he's really helped to define that whole social gaming space, and you could say that it's just through money or investment, but his passion about creative people is helping drive that whole side of things. I think his talk on Friday morning will be fascinating - the perfect person to lead off there.