GamesBeat Summit adds veteran game designer Amy Jo Kim as speaker

We’re happy to be adding veteran game designer Amy Jo Kim as a lightning talk speaker for the second annual GamesBeat Summit 2016, an event that’s set for May 3 and May 4 at the scenic Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito, Calif.

Above: Amy Jo Kim, game designer.

Image Credit: Amy Jo Kim

Kim will talk about helping clients find their “alpha moment” in game design and how that can level the playing field for game developers around the world. Kim has a background in neuroscience, computer science, and psychology. She has applied that knowledge to both game design and web community architecture. Her design credits include Rock Band, The Sims, Ultima Online, eBay, Family.com, Nytimes.com, Indiegogo.com, and numerous startups. In 2000, she published the book Community Building on the Web. She has a doctorate in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Washington and is an adjunct game design professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

This event is about the global business of gaming, which is growing in so many ways and becoming a bigger part of the entertainment and technology industries. We’ve designed this year’s summit to be a more intimate experience for the leaders of the gaming world. Our theme is focused on underdogs and the strategies they use to win.

Our goal is to make GamesBeat Summit the best event of its kind. It brings together 180 gaming executives from all segments of the gaming ecosystem to develop a blueprint for the industry’s expansion in 2016 and beyond. New markets, new game genres, and new platforms are opening up for game companies. Virtual reality, augmented reality, and esports are re-energizing developers. Our speakers shed light on the landscape and help you make the right decisions so your company can grow. We’re vetting the speaker candidates for good narratives, such as David and Goliath stories, that hold lessons for us all.

If you want to apply for an invitation, please click here.

Our previously announced speakers include:

John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity Technologies, is returning for the second year to our GamesBeat Summit. Riccitiello has been expanding Unity’s reach as a game engine that is democratizing game development by making it easier than ever to make games and publish them across platforms. And now he is adding services for game developers such as advertising and monetization. The former CEO of Electronic Arts is also reportedly raising money at a very healthy valuation. We’re looking forward to quizzing him on a variety of topics in a fireside chat.

Owen Mahoney, the CEO of Nexon. Mahoney is a veteran of the GamesBeat stage, and he continues to make interesting strategic moves in gaming. Most recently, the company acquired DomiNations developer Big Huge Games, a Western studio founded by game pioneers Brian Reynolds and Tim Train. Mahoney has been signing up a lot of famous game developers, mostly by pitching gaming as an art form. He spoke at last fall’s GamesBeat 2015 event, and we’re happy to have him back.

Jeri Ellsworth, the cofounder of augmented reality glasses maker CastAR, will talk about augmented reality glasses based on the company’s new platform. CastAR glasses will be able to overlay animations and other imagery on top of the real world. It’s a creative product from an interesting hardware tinkerer. Ellsworth taught herself how to design chips and became known in 2004 for creating a Commodore 64 system on a chip with a joystick. She went on to become a hardware hacker and was part of a team of researchers at Valve, the maker of the Half-Life games and the new SteamVR virtual reality technology.

Mike Gallagher, the CEO of the Entertainment Software Association. Gallagher is returning to speak as the chief lobbyist for the game industry. We caught him recently at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, where he aggressively defended and praised the game industry for its fast growth and expansion to new platforms. Gallagher is the chief spokesman for an industry that has reached $99.3 billion in sales around the world, according to market researcher Newzoo.

Gallagher noted that just two decades ago, video games were a niche. Now games are an economic driver, he said, with $23.5 billion in the U.S. in 2015 sales across physical and digital segments. And they remain an innovative force in technology, too — just look at how games could be the killer app for virtual reality. The U.S. has 1,800 video game facilities (companies and offices), with more than 1,600 publishers and developers. And 406 universities have degrees or curricula in video games.

Peter Phillips, the executive vice president and general manager of interactive and digital distribution for Disney’s Marvel Entertainment. He oversees Marvel’s New York digital media division, which creates and manages web, app, and social media experiences. He also runs the Los Angeles video games unit, which oversees the development of multiplatform games, and the L.A. digital film and video distribution group.

Basically, he licenses game publishers and developers to make games based on Marvel properties, and that responsibility is a serious one. When he spoke at our event last year, he viewed the role as a “brand steward,” or being a caretaker who was very careful about what he allowed others to do with Marvel brands. We’re delighted to have him back for a fireside chat at a time just before the May 6 debut of Captain America: Civil War in theaters.

Riccardo Zacconi, the CEO of King. Zacconi has been the CEO of King Digital Entertainment and its predecessor, Midasplayer.com, since 2003. He helped fuel the growth of King on the web and on Facebook. His company’s fortunes took off in 2012 with the launch of Candy Crush Saga on mobile devices. For the past couple of years, Candy Crush Saga has been among the top-three grossing mobile games in the world. In November, Zacconi sold King to Activision Blizzard for $5.9 billion as part of an effort to create a global gaming powerhouse across all major platforms. The deal was one of the biggest in the history of the game industry, and it showed how much value King had created with its mobile-based casual gaming business. After the acquisition, Zacconi told us that he is looking forward to taking advantage of Activision Blizzard’s massive network of users and franchises for new mobile game properties.

Robbie Bach, the former chief Xbox officer. Microsoft lost $5-7 billion on the original Xbox, launched in 2001. And it made billions of dollars on the Xbox 360. Depending on the time frame in which you look at it, this was either an insane waste of money or the finest strategic decision that Microsoft ever made. Robbie Bach had to make the call to do it or not. He was the chief Xbox officer from 2000 to 2010. After two console cycles, Bach decided to do work as a “civic engineer” to help fix both charities and governments. We look forward to a discussion of what Bach learned from his efforts and how they are relevant today to companies that are trying to establish new platforms. Bach recently wrote a memoir book, Xbox Revisited, about his time at Microsoft and his own efforts to fix our country’s civic problems.

Rami Ismail, the cofounder of Vlambeer. Ismail is one of the most visible independent game developers in the world. The cofounder of the Netherlands-based Vlambeer is trying to use that fame to give back to the indie community and do good. The studio’s has a signature style, and fans have supported it all the way. Five years ago, Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman started the company. Their hits include Super Crate Box (2010), Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (2011), Gun Godz (2012), Ridiculous Fishing (2013), Luftrausers (2014), and Nuclear Throne (2014). Ismail has also been active supporting indies with the Indie Press Kit, DoDistribute, DoToolKit, and GameDev world. Ismail is outspoken on social issues, and he has taken gamers to task for online harassment. And he remains a big advocate for the global gaming business.

Noah Falstein, the chief game designer at Google. Falstein has had a long history of making video games. But at Google, which doesn’t make traditional video games, you would think that he doesn’t have much to do. But he does. Falstein noted in a panel that I moderated last year that Google supports games across the whole spectrum, perhaps more so than any other company. Much of its focus is in getting the next billion people to play games on such platforms as Android devices and virtual reality.

At last year’s Game Developers Conference, Falstein talked about doing games using Google’s Project Tango, the augmented reality technology that can map the 3D space around you and, using a tablet screen or future augmented reality glasses, project an interactive experience into that space. You can conceivably play a 3D horror game inside your own house where you hide behind your own furniture to escape a monster. Falstein has also talked about creating games such as the massively multiplayer online mobile game, Ingress, which was recently spun out of Google as Niantic. Falstein has served in game design roles at the Inspiracy, Suddenly Social, NF Interactive, LucasArts, Dreamworks, and 3DO.

Neil Young, the CEO of N3twork. Young and Bob Stevenson launched N3twork as a social network based on interests groups in 2013. It didn’t take off as expected, so they pivoted last fall into mobile gaming. That was an unusual move, but it showed how flexible Young was in adapting to the fast-changing market. And, if anything, gaming has been changing fast in the past few years. It won’t be an easy path as big companies are starting to dominate the top-grossing games in mobile. But Young has pulled off some interesting feats in the past. In 2008, he started Ngmoco with Stevenson at the dawn of the iPhone era. Japan’s DeNA, a mobile and social gaming company, acquired Ngmoco for $400 million in 2010. Before that, Young spent years working on triple-A games such as The Lord of the Rings, The Sims, and the experimental Majestic game at Electronic Arts. He built his first game when he was 14.

Some of our topics include:

Platforms: Where to place your bets: VR, AR, and more

The opportunities in the $90 billion game industry have never been bigger.  Platforms such as smartphones, tablets, and mobile messaging services have created new ways to reach more gamers than ever before. But a single game company can’t do everything. As virtual reality and augmented reality arrive, resource allocation becomes a real challenge. Where should you place your bets? How do you reach the most people? How do you reach the most engaged consumers who are perfect for your games? Our session will help you sort that out.

Monetization: How to acquire and retain your user base

The best tricks for monetizing games keep changing. We highlight them every year, but nobody ever talks about the same topic twice. We’re gathering some experts who can break down the state of the art in monetization. Can we find lessons for the rest of the industry? Does free-to-play work on the consoles? Can you create microtransactions that boost a paid game’s results without alienating players?

Deals: Follow the money

The conventional wisdom says that it’s smarter to invest in the emerging markets of augmented reality and virtual reality than in mobile games. But FunPlus recently announced a $50 million fund to invest primarily in mobile games. The overall surge of investment dollars into private gaming companies has been followed by a slowdown in recent months. Will this snail’s pace continue, or will we see certain segments start the upward cycle again?

Brands & Franchises

The rising cost of user acquisition has driven game developers into the arms of brands and franchise licensors. This strategy has been in effect for at least a couple of years in mobile. Has it worked? How can it be done better, particularly across regional borders? We’ll line up some experts to talk about the latest ways that brands are tapping the huge well of mobile users — without resorting to brand slapping.

Esports and community

After years in the wilderness, esports has become a big business. Competitive gaming events draw global audiences, and they’re spawning new kinds of careers for professional athletes and others in the spectator ecosystem. The global esports market is expected to grow 43 percent from $325 million in 2015 to $463 million in 2016, according to a new report by market researcher Newzoo. By 2019, esports are expected to grow to $1.1 billion. ESPN’s and Yahoo’s new esports efforts, EA’s decision to appoint its chief operating officer as head of a new esports division, and Activision Blizzard’s acquisition of event organizer Major League Gaming show just how important esports is becoming to some of the biggest media companies in the world. The rise of esports goes hand-in-hand with understand the communities that gamers are creating. We’ll help you navigate this emerging market.

Embracing diversity and creativity

Diversity and creativity go hand-in-hand. If you improve one within your organization, chances are good that the other will benefit. We’re talking with experts on how to inspire your teams to move to greater heights when it comes to both diversity and creativity. We’re then looking at the results that develop from the finished games.

Our event advisory board includes:

• Sinjin Bain, CEO of MaxPlay
• Gordon Bellamy, visiting scholar at USC
• Seamus Blackley, Xbox cofounder and consultant
• Michael Chang, senior vice president of corporate development at NCSoft
• Daniel Cho, chairman at Innospark
• Kate Edwards, executive director at the International Game Developers Association
• Jay Eum, managing director of TransLink Capital
• Chris Fralic, partner at First Round Capital
• Bill Grosso, CEO of Scientific Revenue
• Perrin Kaplan, principal at Zebra Partners
• Tim Merel, founder and CEO of Eyetouch Reality and managing director at Digi-Capital
• Phil Sanderson, managing director at IDG Ventures
• Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors
• Sunny Dhillon, partner at Signia Venture Partners

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