Don’t miss our fireside chat with Tencent at GamesBeat 2012

We’re pleased to announce that David Wallerstein, senior executive vice president of international business at Tencent, will be sitting down with me for an on-stage fireside chat at our annual GamesBeat 2012 conference on July 10-11 in San Francisco.

Tencent is a big social networking and gaming giant in China, with a market valuation of more than $50 billion. That puts it on the same scale as Facebook, and it is many times more valuable than Zynga. The company has made waves recently by moving onto an international stage, making investments in Riot Games and Epic Games. These kinds of deals show how far gaming has comes in terms of its global scale.

Our chat is entitled “The Past, Present, and Future of Tencent’s Gaming Services.” Wallerstein has been with Tencent since the early startup days, and in this fireside chat, he’ll share the story of how Tencent got into online gaming and where it’s going from here. What is Tencent’s unique approach to gaming? What lessons can be learned going beyond the concepts of “free to play” or “virtual goods?” And ultimately, “what are the core principles of Tencent’s mission?”

Tencent is just one of many companies leading the charge in investments in games. Our records show that 145 game companies raised $1.54 billion in funding in 2011, and that’s only the companies that disclosed how much they raised. That figure was up 47 percent from the $1.05 billion raised by 91 companies in 2010. This year, mobile game companies and social casino game companies have been raising a lot of money.

These numbers don’t include the $2 billion-plus raised in the public markets by companies such as Zynga and Nexon.

GamesBeat 2012’s theme is “the crossover era.” The game industry as we know it is changing. We’re seeing established companies cross over from one market to another, where once they faced barriers. As companies adapt to change, we are witnessing disruption, change, consolidation, innovation, and the arrival of big money. We’re talking billions of dollars that are at stake.

Our previously announced speakers are Mark Pincus of Zynga, Will Wright of Stupid Fun Club, Bing Gordon of Kleiner Perkins, David Perry of Gaikai, Mitch Lasky of Benchmark Capital, Chris Petrovic of GameStop Digital Ventures, Riccardo Zacconi of King.com, Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio, Seamus Blackley of Innovative Leisure, Will Harbin of Kixeye, Brock Pierce of Clearstone Global Gaming Fund, David Bezahler of Blitzoo, Nicholas Talarico of 12 Gigs, Jesse Jasonov of Zynga, Christopher Griffin of Betable, Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions, Cindy Au of Kickstarter, Brian Fargo of InXile Entertainment, Jesse Divnich of EEDAR, Phil Eisler of Nvidia, Greg Canessa of Activision Blizzard, Tim Merel of Digi-Capital, Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nabeel Hyatt of Spark Capital, Atul Bagga of Lazard Capital Markets, and Martin Rae of AIAS.

We’re expecting 500 movers and shakers from throughout the game industry — social, mobile, online, and console. Please join us.

We want to thank the industry leaders that are supporting GamesBeat 2012: W3i as Platinum Sponsor; King.com as Corporate Sponsor; Flurry and Tapjoy as Gold Sponsors; Greystripe, LifeStreet Media, Ludei and Nokia Developer as Silver Sponsors; and Betable, Game Insight, Gree, Kontagent, Nexage, Paypal, Pontiflex, Swrve, and XYOlogic as Event Sponsors.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500-plus execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your tickets here.