SMU welcomed major video game industry players in the fourth annual Game:Business:Law International Summit on the Law & Business of Video Games Wednesday and Thursday at SMU Dedman School of Law.
Keynote speaker Ted Price, the president and chief executive officer of Insomniac Games, which has brought games like Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank, discussed how to address the future market of gaming in his opening presentation.
Price said that it is important to consider how to aggregate and use gamer statistics to make better games, embrace the current social networks and make the hooks to those sites meaningful. For him, the biggest thing to do is to be on all screens all the time.
“For my last prediction, aliens invade the Earth and slave humanity and that’s it,” Price said. “I challenge everyone here to think as if there was a virtual gun pointed at you head. The battle has begun are you ready for the future?”
The conference explored the marketplace trends with the continuously evolving gaming industry. Various lawyers and gaming industry giants provided insight on practical approaches to business and legal issues that come with the changing digital games.
“You need to have a meeting that is the right size, like this one, or the individual person-to-person connections are lost,” Richard Hilleman, the chief creative director of Electronic Arts, said.
The Game::Business::Law Summit is the collaboration between SMU’s Guildhall and Dedman School of Law and The Center for American and International Law. The summit addressed law, business, the creation of games and the impact all three have on each other and the market.
“Game::Business::Law is unlike any other game conference in that it brings together cutting edge visionaries and thought leaders in the video game and legal fields for real, in-depth conversations on current and emerging business issues,” Dr. Peter Raad, executive director of The Guildhall at SMU, said. “Whether you’re involved in the financial, business development or legal aspects of video games, attendance at this summit is a must.”
The conference brings the best minds of the industry to allow SMU students, lawyers, business owners and other attendees networking opportunities in an intimate setting.
“I’m here to make industry contacts as well as just learn and ask questions about things that I never had any idea about and learn just how big and important this industry,” Jessica Watkins, Mod 3 student at SMU Guildhall, said.
Sessions and forums facilitated discussion amongst the new generation of legal, business and gaming experts with the older generation. New legal issues were addressed, with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. EMA/ESA, a case about regulating the sales and rental of computer and video games.
The business, law and gaming aspects are all integrating and making for an in demand market that is consumer driven.
“It is all collapsing and inter-collecting into one space,” Xuan-Thao Nguyen, professor of law at SMU Dedman School of Law, said. “Games have become so seamless that people don’t have any idea that they are playing them.”