Social Gaming, Glasses-Free Gaming, Augmented Reality, and Gaming in the Cloud All Focus of Expansive Forward-Looking Programming At 2nd Annual Gaming Conference
Mick Hocking, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Confirmed As Featured Speaker
LOS ANGELES & MILFORD, Conn. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — August 11, 2011 — Unicomm, LLC, a leading event management company, and The Bob Dowling Group have announced speakers and sessions for the second annual 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond® presented in association with Variety, scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2011 at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Hollywood, CA. Producers have also confirmed Mick Hocking, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, as a featured speaker.
The 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond® is co-located with the 3D Entertainment Summit® and the LA Mobile Entertainment Summit® presented by Ortsbo, both presented in association with Variety and taking place September 20-22, 2011. (Note: Due to scheduling conflicts, Mr. Hocking’s remarks will be delivered on September 20th; exact time TBA.) Together the three conferences comprise the most comprehensive array of experts, research and analysis covering the 3D and mobile entertainment sectors. Attendees will gain practical insight into technology developments, market considerations, adoption rates, creative and production strategies, content aggregation, talent and licensing issues.
Mr. Hocking is also Director of the Worldwide Studios 3D Team supervising the development of 3D games across Sony’s entire platform. He has been largely responsible for the creation and development of some of PlayStation’s leading racing brands; notably the officially licensed World Rally Championship (WRC) series of games for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and the multi-platinum selling and award-winning MotorStorm® franchise for the PlayStation®3 (PS3™). Mr. Hocking has won numerous awards for the creation and development of key artificial intelligence based gaming systems (WARGEN) and for PC flight simulations such as EF2000, F22-ADF and Total Air War. WARGEN went on to be licensed by the Royal Air Force as a training aid and instruction tool.
"Similar to HDTV and Blu-ray, 3D adoption will be led in large part by gamers," said Mr. Hocking. "With 3D content now exploding across movies, TV, and of course video games, including more than 50 titles on PlayStation 3, gamers now have more choices than ever. One of the most important factors in the continued growth of the 3D market is the need for the games industry to produce high quality 3D experiences. This will certainly bring more consumers in and it's clear that once they experience true stereoscopic 3D, the feedback is overwhelming positive."
The 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming & Beyond® will feature a jam-packed, full day of world-class programming, and highlight the latest in gaming technology as part of the Entertainment Technology Showcase, an exclusive exhibits/tabletops area within the event venue. The conference will explore how videogames, aided by new technologies like stereoscopic 3D and augmented reality, are bridging the gap between interactive and linear entertainment.
"With Sony pushing stereoscopic 3D with top releases like MLB 11 The Show, Uncharted 3 and Resistance 3, coupled with Nintendo's recent $80 price cut on Nintendo 3DS, and Market and Research forecasting the global 3D TV market will reach $100 billion by 2014; 3D gaming isn't going away," said John Gaudiosi, Senior Content Advisor to the Summit and co-founder of Gamerlive.tv. "Companies like Sony, Nintendo, NVIDIA, Sprint, LG, AT&T, and HTC are investing heavily in 3D games. But the game industry is also growing at a record pace with Gartner Research forecasting global video game sales reaching $74 billion in 2011, which is why this year's conference is expanding to include some key growth areas like cloud gaming, augmented reality gaming, mobile gaming, and social gaming."
Speakers and sessions at the 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond® will include:
■ Mike Chase, CTO, dinCloud
■ Matt Costello, President, Polar Productions Ltd.
■ Ethan Einhorn, Creative, Director, Sega America, Inc.
■ Loren Lanning, Co-Founder, Odd World Inhabitants
■ Rick Marazzani, Director of Content and Programming, Exent
■ Matt Norton, Studio Director, Bigpoint
■ Chris Petrovic, GM GameStop Digital Ventures, GameStop Corp.
■ Matty Rich, Hollywood 3D Director and Game Creator
■ Neil Schneider, Executive Director, S-3D Gaming Alliance and President/CEO, Meant To Be Seen
■ Mike Schramm, Contributing Editor, JoyStiq
■ Brian Selzer, President/Co-Founder, Ogmento, Inc
■ Shane Shatterfield, VP, Content, MTV Networks
■ Bruno Uzzan, Co-Founder & CEO, Total Immersion
■ Jay Wright, Senior Director, Business Development, Qualcomm
■ Careen Yapp, Vice-President, Acquisitions and Franchise Development,
Konami Digital Entertainment
