Austin, Texas - The Game Initiative, a producer of conferences and events for game industry professionals, has announced final attendance numbers for last week's Austin Game Conference. More than 2400 game industry professionals from 20 countries and representing more than 520 companies traveled to the Austin Convention Center, September 6 through 8, for three days of speakers, exhibitors, and networking.
In its fourth year, the Austin Game Conference was extended from two to three days to incorporate more speakers and sessions into the conference program. A new addition this year, the Dell ArtZONE offered game designers training with representatives from Autodesk and Softimage using Dell Precision Workstations.
The AGC this year set the stage for various discussions about the future of the game industry. During the conference keynotes, Blizzard's vice president of Design outlined World of Warcraft's secrets to success; Jon Landau, producer and COO of Lightstorm Entertainment, explained the connections between creating games and films; Dell Inc. chairman, Michael Dell addressed his company's future in the game arena; and Science-Fiction author Vernor Vinge proposed that we're living in an age of connectivity and the future holds the possibility of "ubiquitous computing."
In addition to an extra day of sessions, the conference added more than 12,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space to the Technology Pavilion for a total of 45,000 sq. ft. of floor space. More than 80 companies exhibited in the pavilion, including Microsoft Casual Games, Online Game Services Inc., IBM, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Critical Mass Interactive, BioWare Corp, K2 Network, Emergent Game Technologies, Ageia Technologies, Audiokinetic, Autodesk, Vivendi Games, Aria Systems, Softimage, and Simutronics-Hero Engine.
Another highlight of the conference was the fourth-annual LivePitch, sponsored by WildTangent Inc. More than 40 game developers presented projects to leading publishers such as Capcom Entertainment, Game Trust Inc., Comcast, Stardock Entertainment, NCsoft, GoPets Inc., PlayFirst, Majesco Entertainment, Atari Inc., Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., MTV Networks, iWin, WildTangent, and Codemasters.
The 2007 Austin Game Conference will take place September 5th, 6th, and 7th at the Austin Convention Center.