Courtship and Marriage: The Union of New World Interactive and Saber
Keith Warner, CEO of New World Interactive and Matt Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive (one of the eight operating units of Embracer Group), sit down to discuss Saber’s 2020 acquisition of New World. Their conversation dives deep into what things were like for these developers prior to the deal, how New World and Saber approached it, what was similar and different in their perspectives, and the considerations that go into both making a purchase and agreeing to be purchased. They discuss what comes with integrating into a larger organization and provide shared experiences and insights designed to enlighten others around the industry who may find themselves in a similar situation now or in the future.
Participants:
Matthew Karch - CEO and Co-Founder, Saber Interactive
Keith Warner - CEO, New World Interactive LLC
Amanda Farough (Moderator) - Business Analyst & Freelance Journalist
Gaming for Good - How the Call of Duty Endowment Rallies Players to Help Veterans
The Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, seeks to help veterans find high-quality careers by supporting groups that prepare them for the job market and by raising awareness of the value veterans bring to the workplace. Leveraging the powerful Call of Duty brand and reach, the Endowment has placed more than 85,000 veterans in jobs since its 2009 founding and plans to place 100,000 veterans back to work by 2024. This chat between Johanna Faries, General Manager, Call of Duty and Head of Leagues, Activision Blizzard and the Call of Duty Endowment’s Executive Director, Dan Goldenberg, a retired U.S. Navy captain, will explore how the Endowment has worked the past 12 years to not only raise funds to place veterans into high quality careers, but also to educate the gaming audience about the latest trends in using games to drive real social good. The conversation will go deep into the game-cause partnership that has been so effective in helping veterans and also look ahead to what’s in store within the gaming-for-good space.
Participants:
Johanna Faries - General Manager, Call of Duty & Head of Leagues, Activision Blizzard
Dan Goldenberg - Executive Director, Call of Duty Endowment
Running a Successful Games Business During a Pandemic
The games industry is a tight-knit community who rely on a steady schedule of conferences and trade shows to help build businesses through in-person meetings and discussions. What happens when all that goes away? How do developers get their games in front of publishers? How do publishers find exciting new IP or market their upcoming releases? Many companies have had to change on how they do business in 2020 and recognizes that many of these challenges have resulted in improvements in that will stay in place long after the pandemic is gone. This panel will discuss how business development, deal making, and publishing has forever changed, featuring voices from publishers, a game developer, a game lawyer, and videogame agent.
Participants:
Ebba Ljungerud - CEO, Paradox Interactive
Johannes Paloheimo - COO, Remedy Entertainment
Jas Purewal, Partner - Wiggin
RaLeon Winkler - Director, International Events at Ubisoft
Maarten de Koning (Moderator) - Partner, Executive Vice President at Digital Development Management
Shifting Creativity
In the last year, the game industry has seen a necessary but unprecedented shift in light of the pandemic and forced many of us to alter our established creative processes. Many existing talks have focused on how employees have made the shift to working from home, but what about the studio processes themselves and its effects on output both in terms of quantity and quality? Our panel of experienced, international game professionals will share their stories and experiences about how these shifts impacted their studio processes and may have even resulted in increased creativity.
Participants:
Alexa Ray Corriea - Narrative Designer, Sledgehammer Games
Guillermo Vizcaino - Head of PR and Marketing & Lead Writer, Lienzo
Michael Fridley - COO/Studio Director, Squanch Games
Our panel of experts discusses the claims made by Epic in its lawsuit against Apple, the merits of the claims, and will discuss Apple’s responses to date. They explore potential outcomes and opine on the likely resolution of the case.
Participants:
Rebecca Haw Allensworth - Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School
Daniel Ahmad - Senior Analyst at Niko Partners
Sean Kane - Co-Chair of the Interactive Entertainment Group at Frankfurt Kurnit
Dan Offner - Founder and Managing Partner at O&A PC
Michael Pachter - Managing Director, Equity Research at Wedbush Securities (Moderator)
From Beta Hype to ESPN: Growing and Nurturing the Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Community
Mediatonic’s Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout launched in August and swiftly captured the imagination of streamers and content creators. As the game topped the Twitch charts, the community team were hard at work, nurturing a rapidly growing audience on Discord and social media with an evolving, meme-powered identity that crossed into pop-culture. The panel discusses the joys and challenges of managing the game's millions-strong community, adapting to change and overcoming the many pitfalls of rapid audience growth.
Participants:
Clara Sia - Influencer Relations Manager at Sandbox Strategies
Oliver Hindle - Community Director at Mediatonic
C. Riana Manuel - Senior Manager, Brand Marketing at G4 (Moderator)
Peak Performance: Learning About Leadership Through the Lens of Endurance Sports
When describing game development, we often hear the phrase, "It's a marathon, not a sprint." But what does that really mean and how can you channel it into peak workplace performance? Gain some new perspective to level up your leadership game through endurance sports with hard-earned insights from IRONMAN(R) triathlon veterans and game industry leaders at Insomniac Games and Respawn Entertainment.
Participants:
Ryan Schneider - Head of Franchise Strategy & Studio Relations at Insomniac Games
Jordan Rapp - Technical Game Designer at Respawn Entertainment
