With the 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference coming this September 15-17 and registrations now open for the Austin, Texas event - which includes both 'Online Gaming' tracks and a special Worlds In Motion Summit for businesspeople and brands looking to get into virtual worlds, it's time to continue highlighting a few of the already-announced lectures:
- Turbine Business Development VP Robert Ferrari, CCP CEO Himlar Veigar Pertursson, Funcom Business Development VP Nicolay Nickelsen, Nexon America director Min Kim, and ImaginVenture SA COO Jessica Mulligan will all come together for an assuredly enlightening panel on Evolving Business for MMOs. The all-star talk will cover what has changed with the business of MMOs, what has worked, and, most importantly, where the business is going.
- Continuing the discussion on our evolving market, K2 Network CEO Joshua Hong, Crossover Technologies managing director Eric Goldberg, and ImagineVenture SA COO Jessica Mulligan will be discussing MMO business models, specifically Subscriptions Versus Free-to-Play. The moderated panel will look at the rising trend of MMOs shifting away from monthly subscriptions to free-to-play models and whether selling virtual items can make up the difference from a lack of subscriptions. Anyone interested in the future of MMO business models is invited to attend.
- Kaneva game producer Jonathan Hanna will deliver a lecture on going beyond just testing your product and features with an online game beta. Titled Online Games Under Construction: Run Your Beta Right, the session will describe how companies can turn their betas into an effective part of their marketing and community building efforts, helping grow the game's potential audience more than traditional marketing alone.
For more information, including a number of other key already debuted lectures that we'll be highlighting weekly here on WorldsInMotion.biz, alongside further new Worlds In Motion Summit/online keynote specifics as they happen, check out the official Austin GDC 2008 website.
