TRACK KEYNOTE
World of Free-to-Play - AAA by Wargaming.net
CONFERENCE
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BUSINESS
The Business, Marketing & Management Track seeks to educate and inform developers about the business of game development and ways in which their business can be improved.
View all Business, Marketing & Management Track sessions
HIGHLIGHTED SESSIONS
Victor Kislyi (Wargaming.net)
Victor Kislyi will touch upon the strategy behind why the Wargaming.net moved into the online free-to-play space and why it's a better fit for today's gamers than box games. Kislyi will also discuss how the company's first game in its MMO wargaming series, World of Tanks, has amassed more than 20MM players worldwide, and how World of Tanks has one of the industry's strongest conversion rates of close to 25 percent from free to paying players.
Surviving Social Media - Experimentation Leads to Innovation
Linda Carlson (Sony Online Entertainment)
Linda Carlson has been driving hard to continually improve Sony Online Entertainment's social media efforts. There are a dozen gurus on every street corner, each offering "the way," but Linda has found that her finest results lead from constant experimentation, being willing to be wrong and abandoning tactics that do not work, while constantly seeking-out and embracing new ideas and initiatives. Let's face it - social media is constantly changing and no one can predict exactly where it is heading. Not even the gurus.
DEFCON: A Basic Guide to Public Relations Crisis Management
Valerie Massey (CLARA)
While it should be the exception, not the norm, it is inevitable that a public relations crisis of some degree will rear its ugly head. Community care and PR veteran Val Massey will give you the tips and tools you'll need to calmly weather the storm and get things back on track. Attendees will gain insight into how to prepare for, anticipate and deal with the inevitable crisis situations that arise in our industry.
Pitching to Publishers: How to Impress and What to Avoid
Pete Smith (Sony XDev Studio Europe)
Pete Smith is an experienced executive producer at XDev - the external development arm of Sony Europe who has been pitched at hundreds of times. The presentation will outline what publishers are looking for from internal and external game developers; what they need to convince them in terms of the game idea, innovation, creativity, the market, the team etc. The talk will include actual examples using visuals and videos to illustrate both successful and unsuccessful pitches. Smith will also include practical hints on preparing and making of the pitch. A good idea told badly is a bad idea.
How Gaming News Works: A Guided Tour
Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)
Additional European Press
Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)
Additional European Press
From mainstream news outlets to niche trade publications, industry insiders and general gamers alike are better equipped to understand the mediums they love. In this panel, Alexander Sliwinski and Ben Gilbert, together with an international press line-up, will discuss the past, present, and future of critical writing and reporting in the games industry. Will all news be boiled down to 140 characters? Attend this panel to learn how news dissemination works and gain a clearer understanding of how the games press functions as a whole.
Leveling Up Your AAA Game - BioWare's Post Release Content Insights
Fernando Melo (BioWare)
This talk is designed to help developers and product managers involved in post-release content plans in what is commonly dubbed as 'HD games' or large PC and/or console titles. The talk will reflect on some of the research that BioWare has done on key elements that make up a successful plan for HD games - including traditional PDLC, Day 1 PDLC, Online Pass, In-fiction PDLC offers, micro-transactions, and more - and why you should consider incorporating them into your post-release content plan.
Fundraising 101 for Game Companies
Paul Heydon (Avista Partners)
Raising money is not an easy task no matter how successful a game company is or how great the team is. There are many issues to deal with and timing is among the most important. With over $1B raised in venture capital by game companies in each of the last 4 years and over $18B in IPO's/exits in 2011 alone, most VC's, strategic investors, and angel investors are keen to invest in the next great game company. Now is the best time in the history of the game sector to raise money. In this session, Heydon will detail the key issues in fundraising derived from his experience of over 12 years advising game companies as an investment banker and three years as an investor in game companies.
Bootstrapping 101: How College Kids Built a Thriving Game Company in Under Three Years
Justin Beck (PerBlue)
Bootstrapping is not for the faint of heart. These brave entrepreneurs encounter fork-in-the-road moments every day that directly affect their startup success. In this session, Beck will talk about the ups and downs of bootstrapping a startup - starting from the basics to the advanced and telling a few of the lessons learned along the way. This talk will touch upon the challenges that were faced when building PerBlue, including why they turned down seed funding and how they compensated team members when there was no money. PerBlue will share the secrets of their wild ride.
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