Organizers of the Social & Online Games Summit at GDC 2010 have rounded out their line-up for the March 9th-10th event, with Facebook and Playfish keynotes and three tracks of sophisticated content on what's next in this exciting space.
The major new Summit, taking place on the first two days of Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in just three weeks, has been designed to educate and inspire on the rise of socially connected gaming.
Summit advisors include notables like Metaplace's Raph Koster, Habbo's Sulka Haro, and Playdom's Steve Meretzky, and the Summit homepage has now revealed the two event keynotes and a complete line-up for the event.
The first confirmed keynote is 'The Relentless March Toward "Free"... And What it Means to the Video Game Industry', by Playfish VP and GM Kristian Segerstrale, the co-founder of the EA-acquired social game firm will "critically examine what the future holds for the creation, distribution and consumption models in video games -- and suggest what your company needs to do to prepare for the era of free."
The other keynote comes from Facebook platform manager Gareth Davis, who will speak on 'How Friends Change Everything', in which the social network "at the forefront of massive disruptions in who plays games, how games are discovered, distributed, designed and operated" discusses their view on where the social game space is headed.
With almost 40 other major sessions in the social and online game space, including speakers from Zynga, Playfish, Playdom, Habbo, Mind Candy, Schell Games, IMVU, PopCap, and many other major companies, the Summit is packed full of relevant, concrete information.
Notable new talks include a major VC panel including Trinity Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners about how to get funded in the social game biz, Diner Dash's creator on how to break out of the 'clone wars' of designing games, and Jesse Schell on parents and kids playing games together.
In addition, two extended sponsored sessions elsewhere at GDC present insights into the market, with Live Gamer's V-Con 2010 presenting a March 10th sponsored event with major players in the space, from EA Online's Nanea Reeves to SOE's John Smedley, and Offerpal's social and mobile sessions on March 12th including execs from Digital Chocolate, Crowdstar, 6 Waves and more.
The GDC 2010 Social & Online Games Summit can be attended via All-Access or Summit-specific GDC 2010 passes, available online until March 4th -- and then onsite at the event thereafter. (Sponsored sessions are attendable by any GDC ticket holder able to attend lectures on that particular day.)
