I’ve worked for months to recruit, and sometimes re-recruit, 93 speakers for GamesBeat 2016, our game conference that runs August 1-3 at the beautiful Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles.
Above: Mike Capps, strategic advisor at Solid Fog and former president of Epic Games.
Check out the agenda for GamesBeat 2016 here. Make sure you look at the speakers for AR/VR day and for each day. Also, check the tab on our various pricing options for the conference.
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Our emcee for AR/VR day is Mike Capps, the former president of Epic Games. Capps dreams about the metaverse, the collective virtual space enabled by virtual reality and the internet. He spends his time envisioning, architecting, and advocating a metaverse that’s open, accessible to everyone, and a safe place for his kids to someday work and play. Mike leans on his experience as a game designer, executive producer, lead writer, lead programmer, research professor, industry advocate, and technology executive.
At Epic, Capps helped guide the company through a huge period of growth from 2004 to 2013. He oversaw the launch of games such as Gears of War and Infinity Blade and multiple versions of the Unreal Engine. He serves on multiple boards, including Sphero, Autarch, the Immersive Technology Alliance, and Remedy Entertainment.
In May 2015, Capps became an advisor to Unity Technologies. Now he’s a strategic adviser for a variety of companies.
Here’s a small cross section of our speakers:
- Kevin Chou, CEO of Kabam
- John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Labs, creator of Pokemon Go!
- Megan Gaiser, senior creative leader and strategist; principal at Contagious Creativity
- Perrin Kaplan, principal at Zebra Partners
- Ophir Lupu, head of games at United Talent Agency
- Wanda Meloni, executive director at the Open Gaming Alliance
- Phil Sanderson, managing director of IDG Ventures
- Maarten Noyons, CEO of the International Mobile Gaming Awards
- Neville Spiteri, CEO of Wevr
- Julie Uhrman, head of business development at Jaunt
- Sunny Dhillon, partner at Signia Venture Partners
- Pramod Shah, CEO of Osmo
- Daniel Cho, chairman of Innospark
- Omar Siddiqui, CEO of Kiwi
- Peter Moore, chief competition officer at Electronic Arts
- Mike Sepso, senior vice president at Activision Blizzard
- Gordon Bellamy, visiting scholar at USC
- Gio Hunt, executive vice president at Blizzard Entertainment
- Michael Condrey, cofounder of Sledgehammer Games
- Ru Weerasuriya, creative director at Ready at Dawn Studios
- Christ Heatherly, senior vice president, Disney Mobile
- David Jaffe, founder, Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency
- Meghan Camarena, actor and director, Strawburry17
And if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the theme of our conference:
GamesBeat 2016: The Platform Awakens — A new hope for the game industry
Virtual reality is impossible to ignore and on the mind of every decision-maker in the gaming industry. Less than 10 years ago, the mobile phone transformed the industry, and those who got in early profited hugely. Now, that same once-in-a-decade – and for some, once-in-a-lifetime – opportunity is here again. Everyone is experimenting, from traditional console players adapting to this new platform to the new VR startups.
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We have seen huge platform investments from the likes of Facebook, Google, Valve and HTC, and Samsung. Augmented reality — from companies such as Magic Leap — is not far behind in the race to create a new platform. With this awakening, we can expect to see a big battle for mindshare among these titans and a lot of deals that affect the fates of many smaller companies.
At GamesBeat 2016, we are devoting an entire day to dive into VR and AR. How decision-makers approach this new platform will determine who the winners and losers will be – from developing the right game strategies, to launch timing, to marketing and targeting the right consumers. We’re examining it all with the right thought leaders in the room.
Of course, many other things are on everyone’s minds, and from monetization strategies to esports and global expansion to publishing deals, we’re hosting many of the industry’s top leaders to share essential insights moving forward. The console platforms are hitting the middle of their lifespans, and they are about to go through their own transitions once again. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are moving to new platforms in the console wars, and a variety of Chinese game companies and Nvidia are also trying to stoke the Android in the living room game console market. What’s the right strategy to pursue for big multiplatform game companies, or startups that can only bet on one big platform?
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