Riot's Brandon Beck to keynote 2015 DICE Summit

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) today announced that Brandon Beck, CEO of League of Legends studio Riot Games, will be the featured keynote speaker at the upcoming 2015 D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas. Additionally, following announcements of previous speakers, including Sony's Shuhei Yoshida, Oddworld's Lorne Lanning and others, AIAS finalized its lineup with 14 more industry speakers.

The newest additions, as outlined in the AIAS press release are:

• Mark DeLoura, independent game technologist and previous senior advisor for digital media at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. DeLoura will helm a session titled "The View from Washington, DC."
• Michael de Plater, design director at Monolith Productions - de Plater will be speaking on "Player Stories vs. Designer Stories - Empowering Players around the world" to showcase an overview of the key design influences and inspirations for the Nemesis System, and discuss some possible future ideas for narrative systems and the opportunities for new types of collaboration between developers and players.
• Jeri Ellsworth, Inventor, Chief Hardware Engineer and Co-Founder at castAR - Ellsworth is a panelist on "The Shape of New Realities" to discuss the future of games and entertainment in this new VR and AR landscape.
• Mohamed Fadl, eSports Director at Wargaming - Fadl is a panelist on "Sustainability in the Esports Landscape" discussing the progression of eSports and its future on a regional and global level in 2015 and beyond.
• Tommy Francois, New IP Editorial Director at Ubisoft - Francois will discuss "Creative Maturity Through Life Experiences - How to Build Engaging Open Worlds" to explain how Ubisoft teams are building meaningful open worlds that will immerse players through the Game System Story, a first of many out of the box tools that help foster mature creativity.
• Alan Gershenfeld, President and Co-Founder of E-Line Media and serves on the advisory board for PBS Kids New Media, iCivics and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center For Educational Media and Research (Sesame Workshop) and Games for Change - Gershenfeld will discuss "Games Thousands of Years in the Making," a case study on the hit Never Alone discussing the launch, as well as his vision for a broader 'World Games' movement.
• Robin Hunicke, game designer, producer and CEO and co-founder of Funomena. Hunicke will moderate the panel, "The Shape of New Realities" to discuss the future of games and entertainment in this new VR and AR landscape.
• Kevin Lin, COO at Twitch - Lin will moderate "Sustainability in the Esports Landscape," a panel on the progression of eSports and its future on a regional and global level in 2015 and beyond.
• Bob Lowe, game director, Avalanche Software - Lowe will present on "Disney Infinity: A Platform Without Borders" to introduce how the Disney Infinity game platform is breaking down borders both inside the Walt Disney Company and in the global gaming universe of consumers and game developers.
• Gloria O'Neill, President and CEO of Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Executive Chair and board member of E-Line Ventures, LLC - O'Neill will discuss "Games Thousands of Years in the Making," a case study on the hit Never Alone discussing the launch as well as vision for a broader 'World Games' movement.
• Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris creator, will join Henk Rogers, Managing Director of The Tetris Company, on the "Secret Origins of the Tetris Phenomenon" to recount their earliest memories of the struggles, lessons, pitfalls, and triumphs.
• Chris Sigaty, executive producer at Blizzard Entertainment - Sigaty is a panelist on "Sustainability in the Esports Landscape" discussing the progression of eSports and its future on a regional and global level in 2015 and beyond.

The event's sessions will take place on February 4-5 at the Hard Rock Hotel and the show culminates in the 18th D.I.C.E. Awards on Thursday, Feb. 5th PST beginning at 7 PM. All sessions and the awards ceremony will be live streamed on Twitch at www.twitch.tv/dice. GamesIndustry.biz will also be in attendance to bring you complete coverage.