CGAT 08 The Annual International Conference & Symposium on Computer Games & Allied Technology

Conference Update:

The evidently expanding Global & Asian Gaming industry defines the need for the Computer Games & Allied Technology 08 conference at Singapore. The conference provides a platform for the international gaming community experts to discuss and deliberate with their Eastern counterparts on the state-of-the-art, new research results, perspectives of future developments, and innovative applications relevant to games development and related areas. The conference shall strive to shed light on the inherent sociological and design differences between the East and the West while exploring the challenges faced by the Asian Gaming industry. The conference also provides an opportunity to the international and regional Gaming studios, Game production companies and Allied technology and service providers to showcase their technology, products and services at the concurrent industry symposium.

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VC Funds mainly in the US on a spending frenzy in the Games Industry – itsReal

Will the F1 Race annouced  yesterday in Singapore bring these investors to Singapore shores where technology and animation is soon to be a thriving industry….for this region Thailand gets some funds…

Directly below is a list of VC deals in the games space + Mergers & Acquisitions activity in the games space:

Source: Stuck in Customs 

VC Deals (in no particular order):

Company: Red 5 Studios, Aliso Viejo, CA
Investment: $ 8.9 million
Investor: Benchmark Capital
Description: Red 5 Studios is an online game studio which develops original MMO games.

Company: Digital Chocolate, San Mateo, CA
Investment: $ 22.5 million
Investors: Bridgescale Partners; Chengwei Ventures; DN Capital; Glynn Capital Management; Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Montagu Newhall; Outlook Ventures; Sequoia Capital; Sutter Hill
Ventures; WHI Capital
Description: Digital Chocolate is a developer of games and applications for mobile phones.

Company: Electric Sheep, New York, NY
Investment: $ 7 million
Investors: CBS; Gladwyne Partners
Description: The Electric Sheep Company designs experiences and delivers add-on software for 3D virtual worlds. The Company delivers strategic, creative, and technical insight and services to organizations, works with multiple virtual world platforms, and has developed many projects on behalf of brands.

Company: Double Fusion, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 26 million
Investors: Accel Partners, Hearst Corporation, IDG; Ventures Pacific, Jerusalem; Venture Partners, Norwest; Venture Partners, Sedona; Capital, Time Warner
Description: Double Fusion is a provider of in-game advertising and marketing solutions. The company’s technology delivers a range of advertising possibilities inside and around video game and casual game titles.

Looking for a Career TIP – Look up the Digital Content Creation Industry – itsCreative

New report predicts huge growth for digital industries

A new report announces that the digital content creation market will rise to nearly $5billion in the next five years.

Jon Peddie Research‘s 2007 Digital Content Creation Report predicts that the 3D modeling and animation, 2D animation, digital video, graphics and imaging, and audio markets will reach a worth of $4.9 billion by 2012, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 10%.

The report claims the fastest growing segments in the future will be interactive development and video, as the internet offers new distribution networks and new programming approaches to extend the power of individual web sites.

“We are seeing big shifts in the digital content creation market,“ says Kathleen Maher, author of the report. “There have been game-changing moves by Adobe with the acquisition of Macromedia and Serious Magic, Autodesk‘s acquisition of Alias and Colorfront and Google‘s acquisition of Sketchup and YouTube. The landscape is changing right in front of us all.”