Life Without the CD
Date: Thu 21st May 2009
Time: 16:00 - 19:30
Venue: The Kaetsu Centre, Murray Edwards College, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge
With CD on its last legs, how are consumers now getting their hands on game content? The internet continues to transform our lives, but how can commercial digital creativity make the most of opportunities to thrive in the online world?
The speakers, all experts in new delivery mechanisms through direct experience, will present and lead us through the fascinating world of online game content delivery. We will be exploring real world success with D2C digital downloads,content delivery to digital communities and the creative and commercial imperatives of social networking and portal sites - where are games headed on the global digital roadmap!
Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a rapidly developing games industry network in the East of England. We have lined up an impressive list of speakers from the Industry to debate the issues.
The event is free to attend, but places are limited and are based on first come first served. Register now for this event.
Agenda
16:00 Registration and Refreshments
16:30 Welcome and Introduction - Rob Precious of Geomerics
16:40 Going direct: Opportunities, Pathfinders and Pitfalls - Rick Gibson from Games Investor Consulting
Rick will present the scale, growth and innovation potential of the online gaming market. He’ll describe some leading games companies that are changing the rules, throw the differences between running offline vs. online companies into stark relief, and ask why so few British studios operate in the online world.
17:00 Q&A
17:10 Self Publishing: A Best Practice Clinic - Alex Chapman from Sheridans the Creative Business Lawyers
Alex will present a best practice guide to Self Publishing in the digital era with a particular emphasis on protecting IP.
17:30 Q&A
17:40 “We are all assuming the future is online. Is this right?” - David Braben from Frontier
David will talk about how increasing online distribution of games is likely to change the games industry, but also challenge the assumption that all games will be sold online in the near future. He will talk in the context of Frontier’s online-only release of LostWinds, and experience with games sold through conventional retail channels.
18:00 Q&A
18:10 Presenter Panel Discussion
Led by Rick Gibson, this will be an open panel session drawing on the panel’s experience and the presentations, leading into lively debate involving the whole audience.
18:30 Networking over Coffee/Tea
19:30 Event Closes
This agenda may be subject to change
Speaker Profiles
David Braben
About Frontier - Frontier employs over 200 people, based in Cambridge, UK and is one of the games industry’s leading independent developers, having built upon the innovative creations of founder David Braben, co-author of the seminal ‘Elite’. Frontier is currently making games for all leading platforms.
The studio has received several prestigious BAFTA nominations (e.g. for ‘Dog’s Life’ and ‘Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo’) in addition to an Academy of Interactive Arts Institute nomination for it’s US PC No. 1 hit ‘RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3’.
In October 2007 publisher LucasArts and Frontier released the award winning “Thrillville: Off the RailsTM”, the sequel to their 2006 best-selling original kids title in North America, ‘ThrillvilleTM’.
LostWinds®, Frontier’s chart-topping launch title for Nintendo’s WiiWareTM digital game download service won the 2008 Develop Industry Excellence Award ‘Best New IP’.
Frontier is working on the eagerly anticipated Xbox®360, PlayStation®3 and PC action thriller ‘The Outsider®’ as well as other exciting, but as yet unannounced, projects.
www.frontier.co.uk
Games Investor Consulting
Founded in 2003, Games Investor Consulting specialises in strategy consultancy, market research and corporate finance, typically consulting at board-level on market assessment, corporate strategy, market entry and development, fund-raising, investment and acquisitions. GIC provides specialist analysis of the games industry, authoring or editing a broad range of research reports including the first major report on online gaming in 2004. GIC’s clients include the BBC, RTL, FremantleMedia, Hasbro, Sony Computer Entertainment, Nomura, Jagex and various governmental bodies, amongst others. GIC founded and led the Games Up? campaign, which lobbied government for more support for the UK’s games development industry
Alex Chapman of Sheridans
Alex Chapman is an intellectual property expert and leading lawyer in the interactive entertainment, leisure and creative industries. He has an especially strong reputation in computer games and digital media, with first hand knowledge of the sectors as part of the development teams on a number of successful projects before taking up the law. He now acts for some of Europe’s top developers and publishers and is regarded by the UK legal directories as “a star”, “worth every penny” and “a leading authority on IP law pertaining to computer games” (Legal 500) and “an expert in the computer games sector” rated for “fighting his clients’ corners well” (Chambers and Partners). Alex is also listed in Develop Magazine’s 25 most important people in the UK games development industry. He is also highly regarded across the creative and leisure industries, particularly advising a wide range of clients from brand owners to sports personalities in relation to intellectual property and commercial rights issues. In this area Chambers and Partners comment that Alex “covers the whole spectrum of IP rights brilliantly and goes through
things in great detail. As software and entertainment media increasingly come together Alex consequently regularly advises, writes and presents on convergence matters.
Get a feed of Games Eden Latest News: 
