Follow London Games Conference live

The London Games Conference is about to kick off, and Develop’s sister site MCV is Live Blogging the entire event.

LGC kicks off at 4pm, and brings together some of the industry’s most experienced experts and opinion formers for four hours of incisive keynotes and talks about the digital issues the games industry faces, with perspectives from retailers, digital distributors and publishers.

300 execs are expected to attend the event, which is now in its third year.

Head over to MCV now for the Live Blog, and check the full schedule below to see who is speaking, and learn more about what they will discuss and who they are.

LONDON GAMES CONFERENCE ITINERARY

15:15 – 16:00 Registration and Tea/Coffee – Foyer

16:00 – 20:25 Conference – Main Lecture Theatre

16:00 – 16:05 Welcome – Stuart Dinsey, Managing Director, Intent Media

16:05 – 16:35 Keynote Address – Driving Digital Growth: The Role of Specialty Retail – Mike Mauler, Executive Vice President, GameStop International

16:35 – 17:05 The Digital Transition: The Winners and Losers – Nicholas Lovell, GamesBrief

17:05 – 17:25 The Evolution from Packaged Goods to Digital – John Clark, UK MD, Sega

17:25 – 17:45 Digital Pioneers Share Their Secrets

Three Reasons Selling DRM-Free Content is the Future – Guillaume Rambourg, MD, GoG.com
Smartphone and Tablet Games: A Checklist For Failure – David Bishop, Senior Designer, PopCap Games
Five Things We’ve Learnt from the Free-to-Play Market – Jamie Cason, Senior Producer, Miniclip

17:45 – 18:05 The Future of Video Games – Ian Livingstone, Life President, Eidos

18:05 – 18:30 Coffee Break – Atrium/EDR

18:30 – 19:00 Keynote Address – Redefining Entertainment: A Look Ahead to the Future of Entertainment in the Living Room – Robin Burrowes, Head of Product Marketing, Xbox Live EMEA

19:00 – 19:10 The Five Events That Will Change Video Games – Nick Parker, Parker Consulting

19:10 – 19:30 Digital Security and the Video Games Industry – Professor Peter Sommer, London School of Economics

19:30 – 19:50 Sky’s The Limit: The Impact of Cloud Gaming – Tom Paquin, CTO, OnLive

19:50 – 20:20 Keynote Address – Players Don’t Just Play – Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development, Valve

20:20 – 20:25 Closing Remarks – Stuart Dinsey, Managing Director, Intent Media

20:25 – 23:00 Networking Buffet and Drinks – Atrium/EDR

SESSION DETAILS

16:00: Opening Remarks
Stuart Dinsey, Managing Director, Intent Media
Michael French, Editor-in-Chief, MCV & Develop

16:05: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Driving Digital Growth: The Role of Specialty Retail
Mike Mauler, Executive Vice President, GameStop International

The growth of digital gaming across the world is nothing short of amazing as it continues to expand the overall industry, but for many customers the breadth of content is simply overwhelming. Explore how GameStop is partnering with publishers and developers globally to bring game discoverability to the forefront in order to drive growth and provide their customers the best gaming experience anytime, anywhere and on any device.

16:35: The Digital Transition – The Winners and Losers
Nicholas Lovell, GamesBrief

Not everyone has made the right decisions when it comes to digital games. In this exciting presentation Nicholas Lovell will name, shame, and praise those who are getting it right… and those getting it very wrong. Eight companies – four winners, four losers – will be dissected. Sacred cows will be slain, unsung champions will be heralded. Who is a hero, and who is a zero? All will be revealed on the day – plus, a special user-voting element will gauge audience reaction to Nicholas’ prophesising.

17:05: The Evolution from Packaged Goods to Digital
John Clark, UK MD, Sega

Drawing on his experiences in an MD role that now has remit over both boxed games and downloads, Clark will offer a ‘traditional’ publisher’s view on online, looking at: How the impact of digital challenges how we now classify gaming; where a traditional packaged game fits into ‘digital’; and how the regular delivery of content maintains user engagement and builds interest across a broader base.

17:25: Digital Pioneers Share Their Secrets
A set of three quick-fire speeches from expert games developers that understand online gaming and digital distribution better than anyone else. Insight comes from PopCap (the most successful casual games firm on the planet), GoG.com (one of the largest digital distributors in the world for games) and Miniclip (the hugely popular kids portal).

Five Reasons DRM-Free Content Can Help Your Sales & Your Brand
Guillaume Rambourg, MD, GOG.com

Adding copy protection to a game has minimal effect on pirates and only impacts legitimate customers. Guillaume Rambourg from Good Old Games will share ideas on how selling DRM-free content and rewarding loyal customers can work in favour of your sales and your brand

Smartphone and Tablet Games: A Checklist For Failure
David Bishop, Senior Designer, PopCap Games

Bishop will offer up the 10 ways you can totally ruin your mobile game. Topics will include android, free games, the huge audience of mobile gamers and what they expect, plus game controls and complexity. His checklist of ‘ten ways to fail’ will provide a cunning guide on what not to do when making a game for smartphones and tablets.

Five Things We’ve Learnt from the Free-to-Play Market
Jamie Cason, Senior Producer, Miniclip

Jamie will discuss the five key things Miniclip has learnt about the free to play model and provide an insight on what keeps their players coming back for more.

17:45: The Future of Video Games
Ian Livingstone, Life President, Eidos

A games industry luminary delivers big vision ideas on the future of the medium and the challenges and changes ahead for the sector. Uniquely, the audience will get to participate using our in-venue voting system.

18:05: Coffee Break

18:30: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Redefining Entertainment: A Look Ahead to the Future of Entertainment in the Living Room
Robin Burrowes, Head of Product Marketing, Xbox Live EMEA

19:00: The Five Events That Will Change Video Games
Nick Parker, Parker Consulting

Nick will guide the audience through five events which will change the way gamers play and which will impact the industry eco-system backed up by analysis of trusted market data and future business models.

19:10: Digital Security and the Video Games Industry
Professor Peter Sommer, London School of Economics

The video games industry faces threats from compromised consoles, cracked games, P2P file sharing, theft of IP by rivals and poorly-secured access to online systems. Professor Peter Sommer will survey the current scene and discuss the managerial and technical measures available to publishers.

19:30: Sky’s the Limit: the Impact of Cloud Gaming
Tom Paquin, CTO, OnLive

OnLive EVP and CTO Tom Paquin uncovers the powerful possibilities of the cloud as a transformative force in gaming. From on-demand distribution to patches and piracy, Tom will explore the impact this new kind of game will have on the future of the video game industry.

19:50: SPECIAL PANEL

20:20: Closing Remarks
Stuart Dinsey, Managing Director, Intent Media

20:25: Dinner & Networking

SPEAKER BIOS

David Bishop, Senior Designer, PopCap Games
David has enjoyed a long and successful career in the games industry spanning 30 years during which time he has worked on many award-winning games generating in excess of £250m. He has worked for some of the world’s leading entertainment companies including Mattel, Sky and Virgin where, as vice president of development, he was responsible for a series of hugely successful releases with such partners as Disney, McDonald’s and the 7Up Corporation. Most recently, David joined leading casual games company PopCap Games as a senior designer in their Dublin office. He is now working on a series of projects on mobile, smartphone, Facebook and other emerging platforms.

Robin Burrowes, Head of Product Marketing, Xbox LIVE EMEA
Robin leads product marketing for Xbox Live across 21 countries with a view to driving subscription and revenue growth. In what are undoubtedly the most exciting times for Xbox Live since its inception in 2002, Robin is most proud of launching the service in the emerging markets in 2010 and more recently his involvement in the launch of the Sky TV and Canal + services in the UK and France respectively. Looking forward, there are fantastic opportunities ahead and Robin and his team are working hard to bring new entertainment partners to the service in the coming months.

Jamie Cason, Senior Producer, Miniclip.com
With 15 years experience producing entertainment projects in the theatre, TV and interactive industries, Jamie joined Miniclip in 2011 and is responsible for overseeing production of in-house games including Bullfrog Poker, 5 in a Row, On The Run: Vegas and Joe Destructo. After working in theatre advertising in the 90s, Jamie joined the BBC in 2000 with responsibility for developing games and services online, on interactive TV and mobile platforms. Jamie created, commissioned and executive produced a multitude of games including the BAFTA Award-winning Celebdaq and others based on some of the BBC’s best loved brands including EastEnders, The Office, Little Britain and Neighbours, primarily targeting young audiences. Jamie became a freelance producer in December 2007 to specialise in creating console-based interactive entertainment for children and families and has produced Peppa Pig, Tracy Beaker, Horrid Henry for Nintendo DS, Wii and PC and High School Musical and Star Wars: Jedi Trials for LeapFrog’s Didj. He was the producer of the 2011 hit iOS title, Great Little War Game for Rubicon Development.

John Clark, UK MD, Sega
John Clark joined Sega Europe in 2007 from Eidos as UK sales director. Currently UK managing director and digital distribution director (PC) a role that not only drives the packaged goods business in the UK market but, identifies and shapes the delivery of Sega’s market-leading PC content using evolving digital channels, covering EMEA and the United States. A member of the UKIE Board, John joined the games industry in 1997 with BMG Interactive following a decade in Entertainment and FMCG with Fox Video and Rothmans Tobacco.

Ian Livingstone, Life President, Eidos
Ian Livingstone is a leading pioneer of interactive entertainment and fiction, and helped bring best-sellers like Tomb Raider and Hitman to the market. In 1975 he co-founded Games Workshop with Steve Jackson and launched Dungeons & Dragons in Europe and the Games Workshop retail chain. In 1977 he launched White Dwarf, the UK’s first interactive games magazine, and was editor for five years. In 1982, again with Steve Jackson, he devised Fighting Fantasy, the series of interactive gamebooks that sold over 15m copies in 23 languages. In 1992 Ian became Deputy Chairman of computer games company Domark. In 1995 he oversaw the merger and flotation of Domark with technology company Eidos and served as Executive Chairman of the Board of the new interactive entity Eidos PLC until 2002. He is currently life president at Eidos, now part of Square Enix.

Nicholas Lovell, GamesBrief
Nicholas Lovell is a former investment banker and web entrepreneur who helps games developers become publishers. He also provides strategic and online marketing advice and is a non-executive director at developer nDreams. Clients have included Atari, Channel4, Channelflip, Dynamo Games, Firefly Studios (who recently self-published MMO Stronghold Kingdoms), IPC Media, Rebellion and Square Enix. He is the author of How to Publish a Game and blogs about the business of games at www.gamesbrief.com.

Mike Mauler, Executive Vice President, GameStop International
Michael K. Mauler serves as executive vice president, GameStop International. Formerly GameStop’s senior vice president of Supply Chain and International Support, Mauler was appointed in June 2010 to lead the company’s international divisions and drive their growth. Mauler served as Electronics Boutique’s Vice President of Logistics before the company was acquired by GameStop in late 2005. He has also held senior positions with Baxter Healthcare, Dade Behring and Fisher Scientific, where he led operations for 22 countries.

Tom Paquin, CTO, OnLive
A Silicon Valley veteran, Tom Paquin provides vision, expertise and leadership to the technology research and development effort at OnLive as EVP and chief technology officer. With more than 20 years of management experience at leading technology companies, Tom has a successful track record of turning new ideas into technology products that become household names. Most notably, Tom helped found Netscape – the company that popularised web browsing – and was named its first fellow. During his tenure at Netscape, Tom led the engineering of browsers and servers for Netscape 1.0 and 2.0, and spearheaded many innovative initiatives, such as the development of SSL and Web ‘cookies’. He later founded Mozilla.org, the not-for-profit company responsible for such successful software as the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email application.

Nick Parker, Parker Consulting
Nick has been in the games industry for twenty years, serving at executive level for Nintendo, Sony PlayStation (VP) and Atari (VP). For the last ten years, Nick has been running Parker Consulting, the industry’s foremost strategic business consultancy, specialising in offering sound business practices and strategic advice through research, planning and forecasting, as well as assistance with online strategies. Clients include start-ups seeking help with business plans to raise capital or more established companies requiring additional resources to improve financial performance and operational efficiencies for diversification. The consultancy has advised, among others, Vodafone, BBC, BT, Sony, Jagex, Nintendo, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Activision, Codemasters, CCP, THQ, publishers, developers, VCs, banks, lawyers, accountants – and more.

Guillaume Rambourg, MD, GOG.com
Guillaume Rambourg is the managing director of GOG.com (Good Old Games), the DRM-free digital distribution platform for classic PC games. He previously worked in the telecommunications industry for Alcatel-Lucent. Guillaume joined the CD Projekt group in 2007, first managing a game porting, testing and localisation services company and in March 2010 taking the steering wheel of GOG.com. Under his management the service noted a 169 per cent sales increase from 2010 to 2011, left the beta stage, and signed deals with Activision, Atari-Hasbro, and EA. Thanks to Guillaume’s actions the service was nominated as a finalist of the MCV Industry Awards and he was chosen as one of the ‘Most Influential Persons in the Gaming Industry’ by Imagine Publishing’s NowGamer.com

Professor Peter Sommer, London School of Economics
Peter Sommer is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and a visiting reader at the Open University. A great deal of his income comes from acting as an expert witness (for both prosecution and defence) in cases involving complex computer evidence. He has been instructed in cases involving cracked consoles and set-top-boxes, large-scale distribution of pirated software and where solicitors have sought to enforce IP against P2P file-sharers. Other cases have involved global hacking, terrorism, murder, people smuggling, and narcotics trafficking. He is a former Parliamentary specialist advisor and sits on a number of Whitehall committees as well as on the Advisory Council of the Foundation for Information Policy Research. He frequently appears in the media commenting on cyber security.