Seattle Games Conference Spotlights Emerging Business Opportunities for Console, PC and Casual Game Industry Professionals

Seattle, WA - November 10th, 2005 - Today the Casual Games Association announced that Casuality Seattle: A Conference for Game Developers, Publishers and Distributors will be held in Seattle at the end of August 2006.

Casuality Seattle is an independent conference designed and organized by the Casual Games Association to address the specific needs of game developers, publishers and distributors throughout the world on all delivery methods: download, handheld, retail and mobile. Casuality Seattle is one of a series of events designed to facilitate the growth and maturation of the gaming industry through education and community collaboration.

"After working in development, publishing, and distribution in the core, casual and mobile space, I came to appreciate the ability to discuss issues with my peers across the entire value chain in an open, non confrontational and supportive fashion" said Jessica Tams, Director of Partner Development at Trymedia Games a leading full-service digital distributor. "It is very important for us to all work together to increase the exposure of our games to a diverse audience and thus grow the entire industry of making games for a wide consumer base."

The focus of Casuality Seattle is on the business and art of creating and marketing fun games for a diverse world-wide audience; specifically casual games and what the entire gaming industry can learn from these games. Casual games are all about playing what you want when you want it: fun and accessible gameplay on your timeline. Casual Games are: platform agnostic, are played in a series of micro time slices, and are easy to learn, yet hard to master.

"As more and more people discover the benefits of gaming, Microsoft Casual Games is committed to providing one unified casual gaming universe for all Microsoft devices, platforms and communities," said Chris Early, Studio Manager for Microsoft Causal Games. "This event will give the casual gaming sector an opportunity to focus on finding solutions to the issues that are critical to making fun, quality games that appeal to a wide audience."

"As a core game developer, I believe that there are many lessons to be learned from the emergent casual gaming market. The casual gaming space focuses on fun gameplay and appeals to a wide consumer market with all the business advantages of digital distribution" said Noah Heller, Senior Producer at Surreal Software, a Midway Studio. "Anyone interested in making fun games with a wide range of distribution methods which appeal to a broad market should attend Casuality Seattle."

The Casuality Seattle Steering and Program Committees are dedicated to providing an independent and informative event for all attendees.

Casuality Seattle Steering Committee:

Andrew Pedersen - Executive Producer, Electronic Arts Pogo

Chris Early - Studio Manager, Microsoft Casual Games

David Roberts - CEO, PopCap Games

Derrick Morton - General Manager Mobile, Real Networks

Kristina Erickson - Washington State Interactive Media

Ron Dimant - Managing Director, United Developers

Rutger Peters - CEO Zylom Media Group B.V.

Casuality Seattle Program Director:

Juan Gril - Producer and co-Founder, JoJu Games

Casual Games Association Managing Director:

Jessica Tams - Director of Partner Development, Trymedia, a Business Unit of Macrovision

Confirmed Session Organizers, Speakers and Moderators include:

Adeo Ressi - CEO & Founder, Game Trust

Brian Robbins - Director of Online Gaming, Fuel Industries

David Nixon - Director of Publishing, Oberon Media

Eric Marcoullier - CEO, Minerva Software

Greg Mills - Director of Premium Games, AOL Premium Consumer Services

Heidi Perry - Vice President of Marketing, PlayFirst

James Gwertzman - Director of Business Development, PopCap Games

James C. Smith - Producer, Reflexive Entertainment

Mark Frohnmayer- President, Garage Games

Joel Brodie - Managing Partner, JoJu Games

Jouni Salonen - Vice President of Business Development, j2x

Kate Connelly - Senior Director of Business Development, AtomShockwave

Margaret Wallace - CEO, Skunk Studios

Mark Elfenbein - co-Founder and Senior Vice President, SkillJam/FUN Technologies

Miguel Oliveira - Managing Director, BlueFish

Nick Fortugno - Senior Game Designer, gameLab

Noah Heller - Senior Producer Product Development, Surreal Software a Midway Studio

Scott Bilas - Director, Oberon Games Studio

Scott Cohen - President, Game Trust

Victor Jimenez - Portal Architect, Northrop Grumman

Wade Tinney - Founder and Game Designer, Large Animal

About Casuality Seattle:

Casuality Seattle, a Seattle Games Conference is designed for industry professionals, industry executives, and professionals interested in creating, marketing and distributing games for everyone. The event will allow plenty of opportunities for networking and meetings as well as detailed and informative workshops for those looking to expand their knowledge of making fun games for everyone. Conference content will be specifically targeted at those with five or more years of professional experience in business development, production, design or engineering.

http://seattle.casuality.org/

About the Casual Games Association:

The Casual Games Association is focused on providing educational resources and community support for the casual gaming industry for the purpose of bringing developers, publishers and distributors together to achieve our common goal of growing the industry to unprecedented inroads into new demographic markets. In addition to educational resources and community initiatives the association is dedicated to supporting and providing visibility into auxiliary markets, tools and related associations. Casuality Seattle, Casuality Europe and the Seattle Games Conference are trademarks of the Casual Games Association.

http://www.casualgamesassociation.org

For more information please contact:

Christine Souliere

christine@casuality.org