• Anatomy of a Successful Week
• Countdown to ION
• New Speakers: Marty Poulin, Sande Chen, Tom Edwards, Nick Newhard, David Whatley, and Kirk Soderquist
• Meeting of the Minds: Interview with Maysalward's Nour Khrais
• Sponsorship Opportunities Available at ION 2008
• Industry Highlights
  • Asia generates half of the world-wide online game revenues
  • Red 5 won't go PvP against World of Warcraft
  • Ubisoft suiting up for Tom Clancy MMO
  • Top Secret: David Perry interview
  • Chinese games market to exceed $3 billion in 2010

Anatomy of a Successful Week

At the end of what has been a very busy week I can comfortably say that all of the hardworking people behind the 2008 ION Game Conference are extremely happy with the unprecedented level of interest in the conference this year.

Last Monday, we ended early registration with an impressive number of sign-ups — more than double our best expectations. Along with many familiar folks from 2007, we’ve seen a lot of fantastic new names from cutting edge online game development and services companies sign on.

We also announced our partnership with the Association of Virtual Worlds, an industry group focused on virtual worlds, which underscores that ION is about “online redefined” this year. Virtual worlds and social networking will take a bigger part of the stage this year, as they begin to occupy larger slices of the online gaming pie. By the way, when we announced this partnership on Thursday, we noted they had over 800 members. Now they have over 900. It’s a rapidly growing interest social networking group well worth looking into if you’re interested in virtual worlds like Second Life, Xivio or Habbo.

Of course, if you’re interested in social networking with influential names from the game industry, naturally I recommend our own social networking group for the ION Game Conference, which is also growing and features our speakers, attendees and numerous other game industry luminaries. No hassle to sign up, no strings attached and no spam by signing up – why not give it a try?

While it’s easy for us to settle back and think on how ION has taken a leap ahead toward our expectation of a bigger, better, more networking-focused conference in 2008, we still have many new announcements ahead of us. New keynotes, new speakers, new sponsors and more! With just over seven weeks to go, there are many more successful and amazing weeks to come before this hard work and industry interest comes to fruition. I look forward to seeing you in May.

Peter Freese Conference Director ION Game Conference

Countdown to ION
Top Ten Reasons to Attend the 2008 ION Game Conference

As we count down the remaining weeks until the 2nd Annual ION Game Conference, we thought we'd remind you of all the fantastic reasons to attend with another count-down:

Top Ten Reasons to attend ION '08

#10. Incredible amenities
#9. Networking opportunities galore
#8. First-class content

This week, we give you reason #7:

#7. Location, location, location

Seattle is not only one of the fastest growing cities for gaming development in the world, but the city and surrounding area is already home to major game development and publisher names we know about in our daily business and leisure time. Nintendo, Microsoft, Valve, Sierra Online, Wizards of the Coast and many others.

As a cosmopolitan and artistic city, the Seattle development community also benefits from having the shortest flight time between any major Pacific Rim city than any other city from the continental United States. Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, you name it, Seattle connects you faster by air than anyone other location in the US.

Of course, the ION Game Conference reflects the best of Seattle for attendees by selecting the most intimate, classy venue possible for attendees. Besides being intimate, tasteful, and the perfect size for the growth in attendance this year, the Seattle Marriott Waterfront hotel has a view overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound with the energetic city on the other side.

The ION Game Conference is one of the few major game industry events to recognize the creative muscle and international connectedness of the online game development community in this jewel of the Northwest. We are sure you’ll feel the energy and welcoming quality of our regional game developers who will be attending.

If you’re ready to register for ION, get started here:

Once you've registered for ION, we definitely recommend booking your stay at the official conference hotel, the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel. Not only are you conveniently located at the center of all the official conference action, you’re staying at one of Seattle’s finest hotels at a specially discounted rate. We've negotiated a special rate of just $209 for ION attendees. Suites are also available at a discounted rate. But hurry, the special ION rate is only valid until April 15, 2008.

New Speakers Announced

We are very pleased to announce we have some amazing additions to speaker lineup. We will be announcing more speakers and sessions over the coming months, so stay tuned for the complete list.

See the complete list of speakers

Interview with Maysalward's Nour Khrais

Nour Khrais, Founder and General Manager of Maysalward, speaking on the topic of “glocalization” at the 2008 ION Game Conference, shares some of his unique insights in this week’s ION Connection newsletter. In this week’s Meeting of the Minds, Khrais touches on his company’s global footprint, the lessons he learned along the way that he’ll be sharing with attendees and more.

PAUL PHILLEO: Hi, Nour; we appreciate you sparing some time to share your thoughts about your company, the ION Conference and “glocalization”. Can you get us started by telling us what Maysalward does as a company and what your role is within the company?

NOUR KHRAIS:  Maysalward a young and ambitious games development company founded in Nov 2003 operating under a Glocalized business vision. The company develops unique mobile and online games.  Headquarter and development cuisine in Amman, Jordan; Maysalward partners are found throughout the world. Our global footprint can be found in Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, USA, Australia and Philippines. Our clients including network operators, handset vendors, distributors and TV broadcaster have helped our games to become a consumer choice, making our presence span across the globe.

Beside my role as a founder and general manager I am involved in the storytelling part of our games: a passion that became a profession.

The company uniqueness is not only in its games production but also in the Organizational structure and operation. The company adopted a googlePlex environment but in a Mini way where the teams work in a funky relaxed environment supported by our fair Share program in which all employees are offered that opportunity to become a share holder in the company.

What do you feel the growth potential is for online/connected gaming in generally unexplored markets like the Middle East and Latin America? What reasons are behind the growth you expect?

The potential is huge and those markets are proving their eagerness to adopt technology quickly and are showing openness towards entertainment specially gaming. At this time the Online/Connected gaming is in its early stage but the increasing numbers we are monitoring since the passed couple of years throughout our connected gaming are impressive and very promising.  Despite geographical separation, the Middle East and Latin America have a lot in common, especially in the consumer behaviors. The Consumers find in games a cheap source of entertainment and a way to exit from the social, political and economic pressure that embrace those part of the world.

Focusing for a moment on the Middle East, there have obviously been a lot of well-publicized cultural differences between many countries and factions within this region and the West. Generally speaking, what do you feel are the greatest misconceptions we in the West have about the Middle East markets as consumers of interactive media?

The Middle East has a very high technology uptake where it surged to become the second-fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, this important technology measure gives impressive indication about the maturity of the technological mindset of consumers which positively reflects in the interactive media usage.

This advanced position of the Middle East region should overcome to misconception the West have and should push companies from that part of the world to explore more the potential of the market without fearing any technological barriers.

Based on your experience and exposure to newer international markets, what combination of a market and platform (i.e. France and mobile games) do you think most developers and publishers are missing opportunities with, and why?

I think developer and publishers in Middle East and Latin America are missing a lot by not combining their games into a TRY and BUY platforms. Those markets are very price sensitive and such platforms will help users to get indulged more into the interactive gaming experience. Through this platform the users will get a free limited game edition to try and then decide to buy or they will get a limited less priced game copies.

Maysalward already started in offering such games with some of our clients and we can find everyday a better response that the day before.  

In the context of the game industry, can you define the difference for us between globalization, localization and the term you’ve coined -- glocalization?

When we talk about globalizing a game it is the process of designing or re-engineering games to fit in the global markets, where localization is the process of adapting a game for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components. But for reaching the full potential of games in diverse markets a common shared language has to be found. Glocalization is the optimum fit of the game developed for the global market but with local circumstances and the desire of obtaining game consistency across markets.

Can you share a product development or launch story from within your experience at Maysalward, where glocalization was used as a successful strategy?

Games are part of living culture, something that we recognized early that they are adopted from other countries, or brought in by travelers and adapted to suit a local environment. Most of our games were developed under the Glocalization strategy and they proved to be successful. But what I can share also is our ready-to-launch game called CARROM.

Carrom is considered an oriental game and touched with the charm of culture from the East. This game has a universal appeal with a localized touch. Played in Middle East, Asia and Europe with every local adapting their own rules and touch. We will be launching the game soon as another proof of our Glocalization vision.

What do you hope to have people learn from your lecture at the 2008 ION Conference this year?

I am coming to share more than 4 years of Glocalization work on games development and storytelling. I hope people will interact with me in the lecture and learn more about the potential of Glocalized games.

Discuss on the ION Network

Sponsorship Opportunities Disappearing Fast at ION 2008

Time is running out to take advantage of sponsorships, with several sponsorship deadlines ending this week. There are quite a few outstanding opportunities available that could perfectly fit your company, but time is running out, and once the deadlines pass, they'll be gone forever. For example, the conference bag, hotel room drops, Nexus meeting rooms and conference program ads are still available. In addition, there is only a single Platinum/Track sponsor slot left, which gives you the unique ability to present a sponsored session at ION. Select your sponsorship level while opportunities remain available. Ask us about our revised prospectus, which has the most up-to-date information about what we’re offering!

As an exhibitor/sponsor at ION, you will be able to expose your products and services to some of the most qualified attendees in the industry. You can enjoy meeting with the hundreds of attendees, speakers, and press — all with the common goal of promoting the online game development industry. We invite you to take a look at our prospectus and explore the advantages to our sponsorships we are offering. To learn more about fantastic marketing opportunities at ION visit the sponsorship page on our website, or contact:

Cynthia Freese
+1 425.654.4575
cynthia@ionconference.com

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