I’m pleased to report we’ve sold out our GamesBeat Summit 2019 conference, which has a great roster of 97 speakers and takes place in Los Angeles on April 23-24. We’ve also got our final agenda in place as you can see below. Our 10th annual event will take place at Two Bit Circus, the micro-amusement park in downtown Los Angeles, and our speakers will help us navigate the landscape of gaming in 2019 and enlighten us on our “Building gaming communities.” We’ll have concurrent talks over a day and a half, and we’ll be streaming the event as well. (Streaming details to come, thanks to our partner Mobcrush). We have finished the agenda and added some very interesting speakers, so please check it out in its final form. Our emcees across two concurrent stages include Andrea Rene of What’s Good Games, Tommy Tallarico of Intellivision and Video Games Live — both on the Hero Stage. And Elizabeth Howard of Aspyr and Ted Staloch of Aspyr will … [Read more...] about GamesBeat Summit 2019 final agenda — 97 speakers on building gaming communities
Super evil megacorp
How crossplay and esports can drive each other forward
Crossplay has become a hot topic among gamers in the past year, and once-siloed platforms have begun to open up their platforms so that players in games such as Fortnite, Rocket League, and Vainglory can play against each other in the same game, even though the players are on different platforms. We held a panel at PAX East to discuss what is driving this trend, and one of them is esports. For esports to succeed, game publishers have to amass huge audiences, and those players have to be able to play against each other in online tournaments. It’s much easier to amass that large audience if the game can be played competitively across multiple platforms. But historically, game platform makers haven’t supported crossplay. When Fortnite became hugely popular, Epic Games’ used its Unreal Engine to enable crossplay across the PC, the consoles, and mobile devices, helping Epic grow the game’s reach to more than 250 million players. That motivated platform owners such as … [Read more...] about How crossplay and esports can drive each other forward
GamesBeat Summit 2019 agenda — 80+ speakers on ‘Building gaming communities’
I’m pleased to report we’ve got a near-complete agenda for our GamesBeat Summit 2019 conference, which has a great roster of speakers and takes place in Los Angeles on April 23-24. Our 10th annual event will take place at Two Bit Circus, the micro-amusement park in downtown Los Angeles, and we’ve got more than 80 speakers talking about our theme of “Building gaming communities” across two days. The code GBS19EXPERIENCE will unlock a 20 percent discount on your registration. We filled out our the agenda earlier this year than we ever have before, and we think that’s going to result in a stellar event. Our emcees across two concurrent stages include Andrea Rene of Whats Good Games, Tommy Tallarico of Intellivision and Video Games Live, and Elizabeth Howard of Aspyr. We’re calling the stages the Boss Stage and the Hero Stage, and we’ll have a couple of small rooms available for “Unconference,” as well as plenty of options for … [Read more...] about GamesBeat Summit 2019 agenda — 80+ speakers on ‘Building gaming communities’
Crackdown 3 review: Mindless and explosive super-powered fun
3 If you’ve played a Crackdown game before, then you’ll know exactly what to expect from Crackdown 3. For the uninitiated: it's an open-world comic-book adventure set in a futuristic city where you charge around as a super-powered 'agent' destroying things to complete objectives. You do this while collecting orbs scattered around the place --on rooftops, squirreled away in alleys-- and occasionally entering races, both on foot and in cars. Everyone needs a break from taking down an evil megacorps after all. If that sounds simplistic then that’s because it is. Deliberately so. Crackdown 3 is a game based entirely around leaping about and blowing things up. You play an Agent, chosen from one of 21 generic tough people each with their own slight advantage in skills such as explosives and agility. The agents have no personalities or dialogue save for a small bio on the character selection screen, so your choice basically comes down to which experience … [Read more...] about Crackdown 3 review: Mindless and explosive super-powered fun