MIGS Announces Its Main Speakers

MONTREAL -

Take note! The early bird catches the worm! Today, the Montreal International Game Summit has revealed the five main speakers who will be giving presentations to the 1,500 attendees expected at the sixth edition of the event. Yoichi Wada, President and CEO, Square Enix, Paul Holden, Lead Architect, Media Molecule, Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development, Valve, Heather Chaplin, Author and Chris Hecker, Technology Fellow, Maxis/EA will be at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel, Montreal on November 16th and 17th .

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Main speakers in view! - Yoichi Wada is President and CEO of the Square Enix Group, which has the corporate philosophy: to spread happiness across the globe by providing unforgettable experiences. During his conference, Mr. Wada will share the steps the group has taken in order to build a new, group-wide game development environment in an effort to make full use of the unique individual characteristics of its three core brands - SQUARE ENIX, TAITO and EIDOS and will share his vision of the future of video game development. - Paul Holden is Lead Architect at Media Molecule, a British-based studio. It is to him and his team that we owe the 2008 hit, Little Big Planet. Paul will speak to attendees about the challenges of the premise of LBP: to employ user-generated content to its fullest. - Jason Holtman is Director of Business Development for Valve. Among other things, he manages the distribution of Steam, an online Platform enabling more than 15 million gamers to access hundreds of games, and video game development via the SOURCE engine. - Heather Chaplin, is the author of the hit book Smartbomb: The Question for Art Entertainment & Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution. A Professor of journalism at The New School, she also collaborated on All Things Considered as a video game specialist. - By popular demand, Chris Hecker will be returning to the Summit this year to give the closing talk. Hecker works at Maxis/EA as Lead Architect solving problems found at the intersection of gameplay, aesthetics, and engineering. This experienced speaker will attempt to answer the question: “Can video games be considered as cultural products in the same way as literature or theatre?”, with the help of data, analyses and, of course, plenty of humor.

The Indian summer promises to be baking hot in Montreal, something which will be reflected in each of the conferences. In order to get the most out of them, we invite video game industry professionals to join us and take advantage of our special “early-bird” prices by registering online before 25th September at sijm.ca.

About MIGS

The summit was set up in 2004 to serve members of the video and electronic games industry. Adapted to the sector’s needs, MIGS aims to become the main yearly event for game development specialists from all over the world.

MIGS was created in 2004 to meet the needs of the video game industry which, today, represents 7,000 workers in Quebec. It aims to develop the transfer of knowledge and expertise, to increase the influence of Quebec industry overseas and to encourage exchanges and communication between the industry’s stakeholders. Specialist and high-level, MIGS covers numerous fields from artistic creation to design, production, programming and business.

To find out more, register, or receive the MIGS newsletter, consult the website: www.sijm.ca.

Source: Montreal International Game Summit

Wendie Godbout, High Road Communications, +1-514-908-0110, ext. 311, wgodbout at highroad.com; or Marie Claude Bernard, Communication and Public Relations Coordinator, Alliance Numerique, +1-514-848-7177, ext. 226, or +1-514-402-2754, mcbernard at alliancenumerique.com ; Photo: https://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090811/NY59551LOGO