Jon Blyth – Freelance (PC Zone)
Tom Francis – PC Gamer
Matt Handrahan – Games TM
Matthew Castle – NGamer
Darran Jones – Retro Gamer
Gillen McAllister – Official Xbox 360 Magazine
Specialist Writer (Web)
Dan Howdle – Nowgamer.com
Wesley Yin Poole – Videogamer.com
Pat Garratt – VG247.com
Ellie Gibson – Eurogamer.net
Chris Schilling – Gamerzines
Simon Parkin – Freelance (Eurogamer)
Games Coverage in a Mainstream Magazine
Zoo Weekly – Bauer Consumer Media
Nuts – IPC Media
Shortlist – Shortlist Media
FHM – Bauer Consumer Media
Front – Flip Media
Games Blog
Rockpapershotgun.com
VG247.com
Ukresistance.co.uk
Guardian Games Blog
Nowgamer.com
Coverage in a National Paper
The Guardian
The Daily Telegraph
Daily Star Sunday
The Independent
The Sun
The Daily Mirror
Games Broadcast/Podcast
One Life Left – www.onelifeleft.com
Eurogamer.tv – www.eurogamer.tv
Game On – BBC Radio 5 Live
Start/Select – uk.gamespot.com
Games Weasel – www.gamesweasel.com
Johnny Minkley – BBC Radio 1
Rising Star
Neon Kelly – Videogamer.com
Samuel Roberts – 360 Magazine
Matthew Pellett – Xbox World 360
Chris McMahon – Games TM
Graham Smith – PC Gamer
Mike Channell – Official Xbox 360 Magazine
Regional Games Columnist
Ross Wilkinson – Press Association
Dave Cook – The Scotsman
Steven Fox – Metro
Dan Slingsby – Games Addict
Ian Crump – Southern Daily Echo
Games Media Legend
The winner of this award will be named on the night
“Edinburgh Interactive Industry Conference
The Edinburgh Interactive Festival Conference will deliver a lively schedule from a wide range of industry sectors including video games, social networking, mobile entertainment, education, music, film and television. The two-day industry conference runs from Thursday 13th until Friday 14th August. Participants will share and gain knowledge and insights into innovations, trends and the coolest possibilities. Keynotes, panel sessions and presentations makeup the key components of the festival conference.
Conference delegates will be able to relax and network in an intimate environment during the conference and at the various Festival Networking events.”
Yesterday you saw the first interview in Bruceongames. Ed Vaizey, shadow Minister for the Arts told us some of what Conservative policies will be towards games when they take over government 0f the UK within the next year. The idea now is that this will be the first of a series of regular Tuesday interviews. The interviewees will all be people who are very important to the games industry. And the questions, based on my 30 years of industry experience, will try and elicit interesting and useful insights. So in future readers of this blog will not only be getting the benefit of my world view, they will also be seeing things through the eyes of some very informed people.
Coming up:
Tuesday 4th August. Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games Studios, one of the world’s biggest independent game developers. Philip works tirelessly to improve the industry. Just recently he had breakfast with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, where he was able to effectively communicate a wide range of industry views. Next week you too can benefit from reading his views in his own words.
Tuesday 11th August. Jez San OBE. Game designer and developer, book author, microprocessor designer and highly successful businessman. Jez is famous as the author of the 1986 game Starglider, but these days he is a business angel, investing in a number of companies related to the games industry. So he has a wide ranging and highly informed perspective on many elements of gaming.
As you can see we are off to a brilliant start and I have promises of interviews from some impressive game industry leaders. I am really looking forward to what they have to say. I hope you find it interesting too.
We are working on a casual MMO called Faunasphere that is currently in beta, but is scheduled to launch August 2009. I wanted to reach out to you to extend an exclusive beta invitation and to find out what you think of the game.
Faunasphere is a casual MMO social game created by the lead-designer of Asheron’s Call. Players adopt lovable, quirky creatures and collaborate to create and explore shared virtual worlds. For more information, check out the media kit and images attached or visit Faunasphere.
If you’re interested, please let me know and I’ll get you into the beta right away. I’m also happy to issue beta invites for your readers.
Pure speculation this, but more than eminently possible. Apple went from being a computer manufacturer to a consumer toy maker with the iPod. They then morphed into also being a phone manufacturer with iPhone. And in the process they have seen the massive profits that can be made by owning a proprietary gaming platform standard. Having seen what Apps store is making for them, they obviously want more. One obvious route this can take is to join Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo in the home game console market. Apple certainly have the technical expertise to do this.
It costs billions to launch into the console market, as Microsoft will tell you. Fortunately Apple have $29 billion in the bank. Yes, that’s right, $29 billion. You could buy a country or two with that. Also you need management who know what they are doing. Well Apple’s management seem to have had all the right ideas thus far. But that is not stopping them currently recruiting some of the top management in the console game industry.
Then there is the strongly rumoured takeover of Electronic Arts. Apple could very easily afford this and it would give them the guarantee of lots of content as and when iConsole is launched. In fact it wouldn’t make much sense unless Apple were launching a game console.
But the best thing about an Apple game console and the thing that makes it most likely is that it will allow them another opportunity to take on the old enemy, Microsoft.
The conference seeks to bring together industry leaders, game developers, professors and students from leading MBA institutions such as MIT and Harvard to discuss the future of the gaming industry.
The theme for this year’s event: “Marketing and Distribution in the Digital Age”, explores the current evolution of the gaming industry as it is set to exceed those of both the music and movie industries. Now especially, when the economy is slowing down, we will examine innovative ways to market and distribute games cheaply but effectively through the digital media.
The conference will include keynotes and panel discussions, which will provide an engaging and interactive forum for industry professionals and student leaders to share their views on these highly relevant topics.
