GamesBeat 2015 addresses how to play the branding game right

There’s been a mad rush into brands in the past year, thanks in no small part to the success of celebrity-branded Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the mobile game from Glu. Niccolo De Masi, the chief executive of Glu, will talk about that in a fireside chat at GamesBeat 2015.

Above: Jason Wilson, managing editor of GamesBeat.

Image Credit: Michael O'Donnell/VentureBeat

On top of that, we’ll have a breakout session entitled “How to play the branding game right.” Jason Wilson, the managing editor of GamesBeat, will moderate the session. Panelists include Chris Petrovic, the senior vice president at Kabam; Blair Ethington, the general manager at Crowdstar; Perry Tam, the CEO of Storm8; and Andrew Sheppard, the chief operating officer of Gree International, a division of Japan’s Gree mobile-gaming company. We’ll explore what makes the difference between duds and high-quality titles in branded games.

The breakout session is one of a dozen focused sessions on games at our GamesBeat 2015 event, located at the Grand Hyatt Union Square on October 12-13 in San Francisco. You can sign up for it now.

Gaming has many kingdoms: mobile, console, PC online, geographic, and more. In each of these powerful realms, companies are fighting to grow fast, to come out on top, and to cross boundaries to rule more than one empire. Playing the competitive game, making alliances, prepping for new platforms like augmented and virtual reality, and surviving the incredibly fast change in gaming right now is more difficult than ever. It’s more complex than the fantasy world of Westeros in HBO’s Game of Thrones … and it’s happening right in front of us all.

At GamesBeat 2015, we’ll dissect how these kings and queens are battling for gaming supremacy and growth. We’ll find out who’s leading and how they are winning.

We’re screening our speakers for bold ideas, transparency, global strategies, creativity, and diversity. Our speakers show that gaming has become a global and diverse business with many intricacies and strategies. This year, we’ll have as many as 105 speakers and many well-known moderators over the course of two days.

Above: Covet Fashion

Image Credit: CrowdStar

Our previously announced speakers include:

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games.

Anatoly Ropotov, CEO of mobile-game company Game Insight.

Graeme Devine, chief creative officer and vice president of games at Magic Leap.

Owen Mahoney, CEO of Nexon.

Michael Pachter, research analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Phil Sanderson, managing director at IDG Ventures.

Sunny Dhillon, partner at Signia Venture Partners.

Jason Rubin, head of Worldwide Studios at Oculus VR division of Facebook.

Shintaro Asako, the CEO of DeNA West.

Matt Wolf, global head of gaming at Coca-Cola.

Chris Fralic, partner at First Round Capital.

Niccolo De Masi, CEO of Glu Mobile.

Brianna Wu, head of development at Giant Spacekat.

Emily Greer, head of Kongregate.

Rajesh Rao, CEO of GameTantra and Dhruva Interactive.

Jessica Rovello, CEO of Arkadium.

Kate Edwards, executive director at the International Game Developers Association.

Thanks to the following industry leaders for supporting GamesBeat 2015: Game Insight as Featured Partner; Microsoft as Platinum Partner; RockYou, AppLovin, and Samsung as Gold Partners; TrialPay and Authy (a Twilio company) as Silver Partners, and PlayPhone, Fuel Powered, Utomik, Glispa, and Bluestacks as Event Partners.

Our GamesBeat 2015 advisory board:

• Ophir Lupu, head of video games at United Talent Agency
• Jay Eum, managing director at TransLink Capital
• Phil Sanderson, managing director at IDG Ventures
• Sunny Dhillon, partner at Signia Venture Partners
• Reinout te Brake, CEO of GetSocial
• Mike Vorhaus of Magid Advisors