Gametech 2011: Increasing the gaming reach

Who was there: Edward Fong, managing director of Ubisoft Australia and the president of the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (iGEA).

What they talked about: Fong began by clarifying that he will be speaking from an industry perspective; from his iGEA role rather than his Ubisoft role. In order to address where the industry is going and what technology is going to lead the way, Fong discussed the fact that the games industry has never been more conspicuous than it is now. Gaming, Fong said, is experiencing a renaissance; families are playing together now, consoles are designed with a wide audience in mind, and new technologies like Sony's Move, Microsoft's Kinect, and Nintendo's 3DS are making games more immersive.

Fong then talked about growth areas: mobile games and social gaming. With more and more people owning smart devices and taking up mobile gaming and social games on platforms like Facebook, more and more consumers are exposed to games in different ways. This leads to increased partnerships within the games industry and creates more diverse experiences.

Fong looked toward other territories, asking what we can learn from gaming cultures like Korea and Japan. In Australia, Fong recognized the need for a high-speed broadband network to allow these opportunities room to grow. He then discussed the impact of online services like Steam on retail game sales in Australia, acknowledging that, while game sales have fallen in Australia, online sales are not--but should be--taken into account.

Fong closed by saying that the games industry needs to pay attention to alternate business models like microtransactions and episodic content, and hr briefly looked at how gaming has infiltrated the mainstream through advertising, music, and Hollywood films.

Takeaway: Fong made the important point that the gaming industry's biggest challenge now is to find a way to engage its growing audience and make the most of the opportunities that come from the convergence of media.