MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Miss anything from last night’s London Games Conference? Fear not, Develop was on hand to make sure you get all the news as it happened.
Below we have listed a round-up of everything as it happened. You can also read the Twitter stream from the night at hashtag #lgc12, as well as visiting further coverage on our sister-site MCV.
Harrison: I used to envy Xbox Live
The conference started with a bang as Phil Harrison made his first public appearance at an event since taking on his new role as corporate VP at Microsoft EMEA.
He offered details of Microsoft’s new London studio, claiming it would not be developing retail products, and explained Microsoft’s ambitions to make the Xbox a complete entertainment platform.
Sega shares strategies for Steam success
Steam amasses 50 million users
Sega VP of digital distribution John Clark meanwhile provided a wealth of tips and tricks for developers to be a success on Valve’s eponymous Steam platform, and how the company was looking to go through the service.
70% of free-to-play users leave after first day;
Decker: Less than 20% of F2P users typically pay
EA Play4Free VP Sean Decker delivered a keynote address on the good and bad sides of the free-to-play business, giving numerous statistics on player retention and monetisation.
eSports can help games last test of time
Heaven Media chairman Mark Reed says that structured competitive gaming is a great way to keep players interested in a title for the long-term, and can help users get more out of a title beyond a standard single or multiplayer experience.
Video games is the second most popular category on YouTube
Video must be at the heart of publishers’ modern marketing strategy, says Google. Google’s industry manager for entertainment Warren Mills revealed that video games is the second most popular category on YouTube. Which, Mills added, is in itself the second biggest search engine behind Google.
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Disney’s six point plan for game dev success
Disney’s commercial director Matt Carroll delivered a guide for developers looking to ape the entertainment giant’s success with apps and social gaming. Disney has recently met with immense success with apps like Where’s my Water? and online games like Garden of Time, and according to Carroll, lessons from a different era of the games industry helped the organisation achieve such an impact in gaming’s digital era.
Windows 8 Store has less than 1,500 game apps
Microsoft’s marketing lead for indy game app builders Andrew Webber explains how developers can benefit from the firm’s new digital distribution platform, and how the early chances of discoverability is ideal for indies.
Other speakers at the event included CEO of Hawken developer Meteor Entertainment Mark Long and Gamesbrief founder Nicholas Lovell, as well as a number of insightful five minute presentations from key industry players such as 6Waves, Heaven Media, IGN and Yogscast.
A panel on the future of the games machine, moderated by Ukie CEO Jo Twist, included the likes of Crytek games GM Nick Button-Brown, NatrualMotion VP of Games Barclay Deeming, 6Waves CEO Rex Ng, EA Origin senior director of business development Roger Walkden and Pegi SA MD Simon Little.
