2005 Game Developers Conference to Host Serious Games Summit

In response to the increasing demand for interactive video games in training, education, and other business and government applications, the 19th annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), presented by CMP Media LLC, will focus two days of lectures and panels at the 2005 conference, March 7-11 in San Francisco, on the serious games industry.

The two-day forum will showcase representatives from the games industry, academics, government and the private sector who continue to define this growing field. The summit will provide crucial information to developers who want to build serious games and organizations that wish to put serious games applications to use.

  The 2005 Serious Games Summit agenda includes:

   *  How Games Benefit the Public at Large
      Speaker: Ben Sawyer, Cofounder, Digitalmill

   *  Case Study: A Force More Powerful
      Speaker: Douglas Whatley, CEO, BreakAway Games

   *  Serious Games Five Years Out
      Speaker: Henry Jenkins, Director, MIT Comparative Media Studies

   *  Shield of Freedom (Coast Guard Training Simulation with DICE's
      Battlefield Engine
      Speaker: Warren Currell, President/Founder, Sherpa Games Inc.

   *  400 (Serious) Later: Best Takeways
      Speaker: Marc Prensky, Author of Digital Game-Based Learning

   *  Circling Back: How Serious Games is Helping The Commercial
      Industry
      Speaker: Dean Ku, Vice President of Marketing, Red Octane

   *  Serious Game Designer Workshop
      Speaker: Noah Falstein, President, The Inspiracy

"The growth of non-entertainment games has been exponential," Jamil Moledina, director, Game Developers Conference, said. "From healthcare to corporate training, the sector addresses a vast spectrum of applications. The GDC is looking at all angles of game development."

The GDC is the largest and most important professional development event for the game development community. The conference will feature 250+ lectures and workshops designed to provide inspiration and build skills, and provide an independent forum for developers from around the world to set the agenda for the next generation of games.

For more information on the Serious Games Summit, or to register, please visit www.gdconf.com.

About the CMP Game Group

A core provider of essential information and community to the professional game industry, the CMP Game Group includes the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com, the Independent Games Festival, and the Game Developers Choice Awards. For more information, please visit www.cmpgame.com.

About CMP Media LLC

CMP Media LLC (http://www.cmp.com/) is a leading integrated media company providing essential information and marketing services to the entire technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and users of technology worldwide. Capitalizing on its editorial strength, CMP is uniquely positioned to offer marketers comprehensive, integrated media solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. Its diverse products and services include newspapers, magazines, Internet products, research, direct marketing services, education and training, trade shows and conferences and custom publishing.

About The Serious Games Initiative

The Serious Games Initiative is housed at The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars Project on Foresight and Governance. It is assisted by Digitalmill, a game industry and development consulting firm based in Portland, Maine. While the Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the video game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy. The Serious Games Initiative is located on the Web at www.seriousgames.org

SOURCE: CMP Game Group

CONTACT: Sibel Sunar, ext. 271, sibel@bohle.com, or Craig Sinel,
ext. 211, craig@bohle.com, both of The Bohle Company, +1-310-785-0515, for CMP
Game Group

Web site: http://www.seriousgames.org/

Web site: http://www.gamasutra.com/

Web site: http://www.gdconf.com/

Web site: http://www.cmp.com/

Web site: http://www.cmpgame.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/181993.html