London Games Conference – Was it any good?
You can’t go too far in the games industry at this current time and not hear about the potential impact of digital download games on the games market as a whole. This is probably why this event was a sell out.
Having said that, the variety and quality of key speakers and panels had drawn in a mixed crowd from across the industry. The audience was made up with platform holders, distributors, developers, publishers, high street & online retailers, boxed product manufacturers, QA, media production agencies, research agencies, consultants, solicitors, even a politician.
So was it useful? With such a wide spectrum of attendees I’m certain that there was something for everyone. There was a strong focus on the PC download sales, probably because it is the most open of platforms in terms of this kind of information www.develop-online.net/news/33136/LGC-09-UK-PC-chart-to-include-downloads
The panel session with Jagex CEO, Mark Gerhard and Kristian Segerstrale, Co-founder of Playfish was very revealing to an area of the industry that is somewhat overlooked. It seems the industry may underestimate the vast size of their engaged audiences and the contribution of these organisations to the overall consumer gaming experience and games space. www.mcvuk.com/news/36270/Beware-the-death-of-the-disc
The other sessions were also useful, with interesting FIFA DLC and Battlefield 1943 facts from Keith Ramsdale at EA, and futuristic opinions from PlayStation Home’s Pete Edward and Xbox Live General Manager, Jerry Johnson. Even though there was only enough time to scratch the surface on these console led communities, notably there was no Nintendo presence.
In general the event has got the industry talking, which in itself is a good thing – we don’t want to have the same painful experience as our musical cousins. From my own personal view the focus was slightly heavy on boxed products and AAA titles (although granted these titles do make up the majority of the market), and less about the challenges faced by a new generation of self publishing titles from a developer’s perpective.
Happily though Marketing in this digital space was recognised as a specialism by most, although the browser based companies freely admitted to no or little marketing. Shame on you for allowing that missed opportunity!
The digital market has a long way to go to maturity, with the iPod moment or tipping point seen as anywhere between 2012 and 2014 www.mcvuk.com/news/36266/Half-of-games-market-will-be-downloads-by-2014, that said it is rapidly becoming a major talking point by all involved.
All in all LGC was a successful networking event that has created a lot of thought provoking digital chatter. As an industry we seem to be embracing digital distribution, one of the most influential technological advances of our consumers’ experience. Now that’s written and posted, I’m off to walk my virtual pet!
OB
