Electronic Arts Hosts Women in Games International Conference
Posted by: Aaron Lockard on December 21, 2006 5:37:53 AM
Game Industry Leaders To Discuss Games for Female Audience
San Francisco, CA--Women in Games International, a non-profit
organization in the interactive entertainment industry, today announced
their debut conference in 2007, titled "From Production to Profit:
Creating and Marketing Games for Women." The Women in Games
International-San Francisco conference will be held at Electronic Arts
in Redwood City, CA, from 1 pm to 7 pm on Tuesday, March 6.
At
this half-day conference, WIGI representatives and industry experts
will discuss the future of game design and game marketing as the female
player marketplace matures and expands. The conference consists of two
keynote addresses, panel discussions and roundtables with top experts
in the field, and a post-conference networking reception, sponsored by
Electronic Arts. Panel and roundtable topics include "By Design:
Building Games for Women Who Play," "The Medium Is the Message:
Marketing Games to Women who Play," "Meet the Producers" and
"Introduction to Careers in Gaming" and many more.
Lucy
Bradshaw, VP and Head of Production and Development for
Maxis/Electronic Arts, will open the conference with a keynote speech
entitled, "The Secrets of The Sims Success," in which she explores how
The Sims found initial popularity among a typical gaming audience and
then crossed over to mainstream success as male gamers shared the game
with their sisters, mothers, girlfriends and wives. In discussing this,
Lucy will explain which aspects of the game appealed to this audience,
and give examples of what developers and publishers can learn from The
Sims success.
A game industry veteran, Bradshaw has worked for
several leading publishers including Activision, Lucas Arts and
Electronic Arts. Most notably, as executive producer of The Sims 2, the
fastest selling PC game of all time, she oversaw overall game design
and played a key role in its unprecedented success. She is currently
leading production for EA's highly anticipated title, SPORE, which won
several prestigious Game Critics Awards at E3 2006 including: Best PC
Game, Best Original Game, and Best Simulation.
Bradshaw offers,
"To put it in financial terms, the game industry leaves money on the
table by focusing primarily on male consumers. But that's because most
developers haven't figured out how to make games that appeal to a
broader audience. Having worked on The Sims franchise, which is not
only the best-selling PC franchise in history but also the only one
that can claim a fanbase that is more than half female, I think we can
make a strong case for the idea that if we involve more women in the
development process, you will see more women playing the game. Why?
Because a female viewpoint has been incorporated organically into the
final product."
Sheri Graner Ray, Executive Chair of the WIGI
steering committee states, "We've received numerous requests since 2005
to create a conference program that brings focus to game design and
marketing issues when it comes to the female video game consumer.
Electronic Arts has provided an outstanding opportunity for Women in
Games International to talk about the value of the female audience, not
only as a consumer market, but as an untapped resource of talent for
this industry."
Conference sponsors include platinum sponsor
Electronic Arts, and series sponsors Game Developers Conference (GDC),
International Games Developers Association (IGDA), Mary-Margaret.com,
Girls in Games, ThemePark Studios, WomenGamers.com and BusinessWire.