Playing Games - Owning the Market through Innovative Strategies

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

Playing Games-Serious Business:

Owning the Market through Innovative Strategies

Billions of dollars are on the table and game companies are experimenting with every aspect of their business to determine the best way to satisfy customer expectations and build a loyal following.

Players, lured by computer graphic masterpieces created by teams of professional artists and addicted to spur of the moment casual games, invest significant time and money in their games of choice. Some players immerse themselves in virtual worlds on-line, while others participate in massive player communities where an individual player may spend thousands of hours to hone skills with, and against, other players. The advent of Web 2.0 set the scene and gaming companies are leveraging gamers' fascination and loyalty as they pursue widely divergent strategies for success.

Join the dialogue to see how gaming companies are creating successful business models that can be applied across a wide variety of industry focuses:

Learn about the various strategies that game companies are following and their current points of view about whether the immersive versus managed model of play will ultimately be more successful
Understand the mechanisms that gaming companies are putting in place to create communities for customers to be in touch with each other
Discover how customers can be put to work as an advertisement medium, focus group and advocacy group - the gaming industry is already leading the way

As companies and entrepreneurs are faced with unprecedented risks and opportunities in an industry where game artifacts and characters are now traded and sold online, and micro-transactions develop instantaneous marketing channels for new products, players have unprecedented channels to interact through web-cams, and new found power as market perception can quickly build or destroy a gaming community.

Join the MIT Enterprise Forum and moderator Raymond Yan of DigiPen Institute of Technology as he leads a spirited discussion to examine the dynamic issues surrounding entrepreneurial opportunities in the rapidly evolving, and highly competitive, world of video and online games. Panelists will include:

Daniel Bernstein from Sandlot Games
Mike Fischer from Microsoft
Jeff Strain from ArenaNet

Daniel Bernstein, Founder & CEO, Sandlot Games

Daniel Bernstein established Sandlot Games and has served as founder & CEO since its inception in 2002 as a premier developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games across a variety of platforms. Daniel is a veteran of the gaming industry and has over twelve years of content strategy, game development, publishing and production-related experience having successfully launched over 20 game titles with Kesmai Studios, Monolith Productions and WildTangent. Prior to starting Sandlot Games, Daniel held the position of director of product strategy at WildTangent, where he devised and executed a successful online fee-based games business. An accomplished composer, Daniel also writes music for most of the games developed and published by Sandlot Games. Daniel holds a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Music Composition from the University of Virginia.

Mike Fischer, General Manager, US Marketing, Xbox and Games for Windows, Microsoft

Mike Fischer has spent over fifteen years at the intersection of technology and entertainment, and is currently responsible for the US marketing of Xbox and Games for Windows at Microsoft. Mike began his career in the early 90's in Tokyo at Sega, and has worked since that time to transform video gaming from a high-tech toy into today's connected entertainment media. Along the way he has managed the marketing of video game icons from Pac-Man to Sonic the Hedgehog and Halo.

Jeff Strain, Co-Founder and Programmer, ArenaNet

Jeff Strain currently leads the production and art teams for Guild Wars. Prior to the founding of ArenaNet, Jeff was the team lead and lead programmer of Blizzard's massively multiplayer role-playing game, World of Warcraft. He was also a senior programmer on both Warcraft III and StarCraft, and a programmer on Diablo. Jeff was the creator of the StarCraft Campaign Editor and was employed at Blizzard for four years.