NY Games Conference 2009 Impressions

The New York Games Conference took place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on September 30th. The program included panels titled “Creating Cutting-Edge Games on the East Coast and Beyond,” “The State of The Casual Games Industry” and an interview with Ben Feder, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software.  It was produced by Digital Media Wire.

“New York Games Conference is a much more intimate conference than GDC, with around five or six hundred attendees. It's easier to meet people at a smaller conference and you can attend nearly all the sessions.  Also, most of the attendees at NYGC are business executives, so it's a great place to have high-level meetings,” said Large Animal Partner/IGDA NYC Chapter Coordinator Wade Tinney.

“I particularly enjoyed the ‘Creating Cutting Edge Games on the East Coast’ panel and seeing the familiar faces from around the city’s industry. It felt like I had a personal, vested interest in what they represented and that this was NYC in action,” adds Arkadium’s Quinn Wageman. 

It is a major coup for NYC to have a conference of this size here.

“The conference is one of many things that seems to be increasing the city's profile in the gaming industry.  While the community often seems small compared to the Bay area, it's definitely starting to show itself as a strong force in the industry again,” says TriplePoint PR’s Joe Zeimer.  He adds, “The higher profile needs to be better leveraged with the city government.  NYC is missing out on the opportunity to attract gaming companies to the likes of Boston, North Carolina, Texas, and Louisiana who are offering tax breaks to companies in the industry.”

Quinn agrees, “NYC is at the forefront of mass media and publishing, and as games gain more widespread acceptance across a mainstream audience it’ll be even more important to foster these relationships on a local level. Hopefully this awareness can be realized on an ever expanding scale so that NYC continues to gain traction as a place where game companies can thrive, which will in turn draw more attention from city officials in the form of support.”

Looking ahead, Wade feels “The local game industry in New York City needs to continue to support the New York Games Conference and other events like it. Encourage both your co-workers and your business partners, whether they are in NYC or not, to attend. We should treat the conference as a rallying point on the calendar and try to get more people involved each year.”