main

USA 2018Video Coverage

Coming Soon in Esports | Casual Connect Video

March 18, 2018 — by Catherine Quinton

Esports-Fireside-Chat-featured-image-960x540.jpg

Esports is one sector of the game industry that is evolving especially quickly. Are you someone who is interested in developing or publishing in this area? Then you are also concerned with keeping up with the latest developments; you need to know what directions the industry may take next.

At Casual Connect USA 2018, Geoff Keighley hosted a Fireside Chat, Esports Evolving – What Can We Expect to See Coming in Esports. The guest expert was Mike Sepso, Senior Vice President of Activision Blizzard Media Media Networks. Mike launched this division with Steve Bornstein; it is dedicated to creating the best esports experiences for fans across games, platforms and geographies.

Geoff Keighley and Mike Sepso

Geoff is a video game journalist, television presenter and the producer of the annual Game Awards event.

In the Fireside Chat, they provided an up close and personal discussion of Mike’s insights and the trends esports are taking. If you would like to know the next big thing Mike sees coming in esports, don’t miss the chance to watch the video of this Fireside Chat.

USA 2018Video Coverage

Anatoly Ropotov: Esports and Mobile | Casual Connect Video

March 3, 2018 — by Catherine Quinton

Are you a developer interested in the esport sector of the game industry? And, especially, do you want to expand the audience for your game? Could esports attract casual gamers while at the same time interesting pro-gamers and esports enthusiasts? These are difficult questions for developers; casual gamers and pro-gamers are at opposite ends of the gaming spectrum.

Anatoly Ropotov, CEO of Game Insight, has some solutions. Game Insight is one of the world’s leading mobile games companies. It was the first company to develop hidden object and tycoon games for social networks and mobile platforms and has since developed unique game experiences in a variety of genres. As CEO, Anatoly leads partner and platform relations and is also closely involved with game development, leading key games for the company.

Game Insight demonstrated the advantage of using a mobile-first mindset with the development and successful release of Guns of Boom, which solved the problem of creating a first-person shooter for touchscreens. Now they have turned their attention to making esports for smartphones.

At Casual Connect USA 2018 Anatoly presented the session Bringing Esports to Mobile. In it he shared his insights into creating a mobile esport game that will satisfy casual gamers as well the intense esport enthusiasts. To learn more be sure to watch the video of this exciting session.

DOWNLOAD SLIDES

Europe 2017Video Coverage

Daniel Tozer: New Technologies, New Legal Questions, New Solutions | Casual Connect Video

August 11, 2017 — by Catherine Quinton

Daniel-Tozer-speaking-at-CC-Europe-2017-featured-image-960x540.jpg
You can't properly advise on virtual reality if you've never tried a VR headset. - Daniel TozerClick To Tweet

Virtual reality has brought about a plethora of opportunities for hardware manufacturers, advertisers, content providers and many other types of business in the games industry. With these opportunities come legal risks too which is where firms like Harbottle & Lewis can provide specialist advice. Daniel Tozer, a Partner at Harbottle & Lewis, spoke at Casual Connect Europe 2017 on the key questions facing developer’s real-world responsibilities in relation to VR.

Europe 2017Video Coverage

Tara Mustapha: Thriving in the World of Esports | Casual Connect Video

August 2, 2017 — by Catherine Quinton

taramustapha-960x540.jpg

Tara Mustapha is currently a consultant after spending over a decade in the game industry as a game designer at Playabl, EA, Microsoft and Foundation 9. Tara’s fascination with esports began with Starcraft: Brood War, to travelling to Las Vegas for IGN Pro League events, Madison Square Garden for League of Legends, and achieving 12 wins in Hearthstone Arena 1x.

Tara is also vitally concerned with the progress of women in the games industry and has been a board member of Women in Games Vancouver. At Casual Connect Europe Tara and Christina Dunbar participated in a fireside chat discussing the challenge of finding leading women in the industry and how they can thrive in the world of esports. Recently Tara described her life and career with Casual Connect in this exclusive Gamesauce Q&A.

EventsIndustryNews

Casual Connect USA: A Place For Casino & Non-Casino Gaming Alike

June 21, 2017 — by Gamesauce Staff

CasualConnectUSA-960x540.jpg

Computer Games Association will be hosting three days of high-profile casino-oriented content at its upcoming Casual Connect USA conference this August 1-3 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. The conference has hosted tracks dedicated to online and mobile social casino and real money gaming for years – and this show will be no different, showcasing big names from various different areas in the casino industry during its casino track. However, the track will also feature content important to non-casino game developers as well – especially in regards to a new emerging market: land-based casinos.

EventsIndustry

Esports, Vsports, Skill Games: Why Casinos Need Non-Casino Game Devs

May 27, 2017 — by Gamesauce Staff

gameco-960x540.jpg

“The casino industry doesn’t have the depth of knowledge on who their future consumer is.” Those were the words spoken by Rahul Sood of Unikrn during GiGse 2017 in San Diego last month. Indeed, a major focus of the three-day casino gaming industry event surrounded video gamers instead of traditional slots and table-game players – showing that the door is open to a new and lucrative market for non-casino game developers.

Skill-Based Games

In one panel, experts from UNLV’s Center for Gaming Innovation, GameCo, Rover Strategic Advisors, Zeal Networks, and Guru Games, barely touched on traditional casino fare and focused entirely on how to merge skill-based games with gambling.

GameCo’s Blaine Graboyes noted that the average gamer is 35 years old and is looking for VIP experiences that the casino industry is adept at – but with a video gaming slant. “I’ve been producing games for over 20 years and there’s just a level of interactivity and engagement that isn’t available in slot games.”

EventsIndustryNews

GiGse 2017 Looks Toward Next Generation in Casino Gaming

April 17, 2017 — by Gamesauce Staff

gigse-featured-960x540.jpg

When GiGse 2017 touches down in San Diego later this April, it will be with an unflinching eye toward the future. While there will be a variety of topics discussed at the conference – virtual reality, social casino, skill-based games, esports, mobile integration, and more – all of it will focus around the next generation of casino gaming: The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Europe 2017Video Coverage

Bill Mooney: The Next Mobile Esports Revolution | Casual Connect Video

April 10, 2017 — by David Radd

Skillz-Official-Employee-Group-Photo-960x378.jpg
I still hope to think that my proudest moment is still to come. - Bill MooneyClick To Tweet

The three elements which comprise an esport are: competition, organized tournaments and spectatorship. In 1972, esports began with a Spacewar tournament. About 50 years later, esports has evolved into its own entity within the games industry. Join Bill Mooney, CPO of Skillz, at Casual Connect Europe at his talk entitled Esports 101: The Past, Present and Future of an Industry on the Rise as he explores the history behind esports and talks about the future as well. Esports has a projected audience of 180 million by 2019 and over $5 billion in revenue by 2020. Bill described, “Esports drives the committed audience.” To hear more insights into this exciting part of the games industry, tune in to Bill’s full session below.

ContributionsEventsIndustryNews

Esports for Indie Mobile Developers: Mad Skills Motocross Championship Deep Dive

April 4, 2017 — by Industry Contributions

MadSkillsMotocrossChampionship_players-960x720.jpg

By Simon Sundén, head of Esports at Gumbler

With over 31 million downloads, Mad Skills Motocross 2 has continued to be a success for developer Turborilla since its launch in 2014. This is primarily due to a loyal player base, many of which are involved in real-life Motocross, as well as partnerships with the likes of RedBull for exclusive events. Looking to drive more community engagement, Turborilla decided to up the ante in October 2015 by introducing real-money challenges via Swedish skills-based esports platform, Gumbler.

Based purely on a player’s skill, Gumbler brings esports to mobile games by enabling players to win real cash through placing money on their abilities. After integrating Gumbler, Mad Skills Motocross 2 saw players win upward of $900,000 in 2016 - with some individual players earning as much as $6,000 per month.

Having seen the high levels of engagement from the Mad Skills Motocross 2 community, Gumbler worked with Turborilla to host its first World Championship at the beginning of 2017 with a prize pot of $20,000.

For Gumbler, the goal was simple as its Head of Esports, Simon Sunden explains:

Europe 2017Video Coverage

Mohamed Fadl on eSports and How They Are Evolving | Casual Connect Video

March 22, 2017 — by Catherine Quinton

CCBerlin2Day-120-960x640.jpg

Where is the eSports sector of the game industry heading? How can you get an audience for eSports? How do you create an enjoyable spectacle? The eSports sector is very complex, with varied nuances among the eSports disciplines. So how do you find your way?

Mohamed Fadl is Head of Global Esports, Wargaming.net

Mohamed Fadl has the knowledge to offer excellent guidance. Knowing that entertainment is constantly evolving, they insist, “This generation doesn’t believe in TV anymore. TV is dying.” And eSports is one of the alternative channels for entertainment that is taking that place. “We call it eSports so we can connect it to something we know and explain it,” they point out, but it is a form of entertainment with its unique aspects. In this developing sector, Mohamed describes “Technology is King; content is Queen. The King itself is nothing, it means nothing. It is just a medium. Content creates the culture. It creates the trust. It creates the channels to speak to the next generations.”

Mohamed began their involvement in eSports as Wargaming‘s director of community in Europe and is now head of global eSports at Wargaming. They have developed World of Tanks into one of the top eSports games and now oversee global development and evolution of the Wargaming.net eSportsLeague. To learn more from Mohamed, be sure to watch the video of his full session from Casual Connect Europe.

DOWNLOAD SLIDES

For more about Mohamed’s career and insights, see this exclusive article.

logo
SUPPORTED BY