Village Gamer

via Interactive Ontario: Details on three keynote sessions that attendees at GameON: Finance can look forward to next week in Toronto. Tickets are still available for purchase for GameOn Finance, which will take place at The Design Exchange.Keynote Interview with  Zack Karlsson, Vice President, Business Development & Digital Platforms, Capcom

A candid and revealing interview with games industry veteran Zack Karlsson, Vice President, Business Development & Digital Platforms, Capcom. Karlsson oversees the digital, mobile & social games businesses and portfolios as well as business development activities for Capcom, a leading interactive entertainment software publisher.

Previously, he was the Vice President of Business Development at Tim Schafer’s award-winning development studio, Double Fine Productions, where he was responsible for all non-production related activities including Finance, Marketing, Business Development, HR and Operations. Prior to Double Fine, Zack held the position of Senior Director of Business Development at NAMCO BANDAI Games America, Inc., where he was integral to the project acquisition and day-to-day operation of the company.

Keynote: Changing the Game – The Power of Analytics – Featuring: Chris Wright, CEO, GamesAnalytics

Developers and publishers of mobile, social and online games have access to tremendous amounts of data about their consumers and their purchasing behaviours. Unlike games sold through traditional retail distribution channels, connected game developers have the ability to adapt their games – in near real-time – to improve their financial success.

Chris Wright, CEO, GamesAnalytics will explain why appropriate analytics are crucial for success. He will present the top tips online developers and publishers need to implement to achieve successful results from data-mining and analytics in online games. Take aways include: recognizing valuable data, how to collect the right data, identifying real player value, how to segment and predict player behaviour, generating actionable results that improve customer satisfaction and revenue, and the importance of tracking social interaction.

Wright co-founded GamesAnalytics in the UK, a data mining and monetization company serving the games industry. His aim is to bring the sophisticated analytics and monetization tools of the financial sector to the games industry. Chris was responsible for the most successful mobile games from I-play including the Fast and Furious franchise (which sold over ten million copies), the Metal Slug franchise and My Dog. In 2007, I-play was acquired by Oberon Media for an estimated $110 million.

Keynote: The Games People Play: Dominating a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry – Featuring: Albert Lai, Serial Entrepreneur

Over the past dozen years, Albert Lai has been involved in dozens of startups, raising millions of dollars in venture financing and successfully selling companies that he’s been involved with. Albert strongly believes that many observers currently underestimate the potential growth of the mobile games industry and the disruptive nature of digital and social distribution which will serve as the building blocks for a billion dollar mobile games industry in Canada. Join Albert as he describes the perfect storm of events, situations, government support and massive game talent which together will shape Canada’s new role in dominating this multi-billion dollar industry, and gain insight into how entrepreneurs and investors can profit from this tremendous opportunity.

While in his teens, Albert sold his first Internet company, the MyDesktop Network in a cash transaction to JupiterMedia (JUPM) for seven-figures. More recently he was the founder/CEO of BubbleShare, a photo-sharing company sold to Kaboose/Disney in 2007. He is a co-founder of Kontagent, an analytics platform, which has raised over $18 million from investors including the Facebook Fund, Altos Ventures, Maverick Capital and Battery Ventures.