Wednesday, January 5 10:45 AM - Noon Track II - GP4: History of Games – From Pong to the Multiplayer Visualized Experience In this session, we welcome a group of the individuals who have played a more than prominent part in the evolution of the games industry. Games did not arrive as a full featured industry with development companies and hardware platforms. Games arrived out of the inventiveness and curiosity of a few incredible individuals whose ideas were infectious, ideas that led to commercial products that spread across the world. The video game industry grew up in arcades and spawned platforms that have ended up in every household of toddlers, teens, geeks and fun loving kids of all ages. Today, what started as a simple ping and pong game enabled by jerry-rigged logic boards has ended up as an entertainment industry, a cultural swaying world of innovation. We welcome our panel of games innovators. Dennis Fong, Founder and Chief Gaming Officer, Xfire Mark Rein, Vice President, Epic Games Inc. - Unreal Tournament Steve Reid, Managing Director, Red Storm Entertainment, division, Ubi Soft Jeff Briggs, founder, President & CEO, Firaxis Games Kevin Bachus, President, Infinium Labs David Roman, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Nvidia, Moderator Steve Reid is the managing director for Red Storm Entertainment, a division of Ubi Soft. He is one of the original founders of Red Storm (1996), the studio know for creating the Tom Clancy line of games. After a successful run as an independent developer/publisher, Red Storm was acquired by Ubi Soft Entertainment (2000). Post acquisition, Red Storm and Ubi Soft have worked together to develop new products from both the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon franchise lines...with Ubi Soft adding Splinter Cell to the Tom Clancy line. Before games, Steve received a Master of Fine Arts degree from East Carolina University. He has taught a variety of college art disciplines and now collaborates with local and national colleges as an advisor on digital art curriculum. Steve has participated as a moderator, a panelist and a guest speaker at the Game Developer Conference. Dennis Fong, Chief Gaming Officer, Xfire: Dennis is co-founder and Chief Gaming Officer of Xfire, a social networking tool for gamers. Regarded as the "Michael Jordan of Videogames" by the Wall Street Journal, he has always been passionate about finding ways to improve the gaming experience. At Xfire, Dennis is involved in business development, marketing, and product development, lending his unique experience in the gaming industry to build partnerships and help shape the direction of the product. Prior to Xfire, Dennis co-founded Gamers.com and Firingsquad, two popular gaming websites that averaged over 75 million page views a month, and Lithium Technologies, a Customer Relationship Management company with customers such as Dell, Nintendo, Sony, AT&T Wireless, and Ubisoft. Dennis is also the World Champion of Doom, Quake, and Quake 2. Kevin Bachus, President, Infinium Labs: One of the best-known and most highly respected executives in the video game industry, Kevin Bachus involvement in Infinium Labs marks his second game console launch. He was one of the original group of four individuals at Microsoft Corporation who came up with the idea for the Xbox videogame console, an initiative that grew in part out of his role as group product manager for DirectX. As Microsoft's first director of third-party relations for Xbox, Kevin secured support for Xbox from all major game publishers worldwide and created and managed the programs and processes that would ultimately lead to the strongest software line-up ever for the launch of a game console. Prior to joining Infinium, Kevin co-founded and served as vice president of publishing at Capital Entertainment Group (CEG), the computer and video game industry's first independent production company. CEG sought to maximize the potential of top-tier developers by managing the development of innovative, premium quality games in partnership with the worldwide publishing community. Kevin was responsible for all commercial aspects of product development. Kevin also worked for the consumer software publisher Mindscape, Inc. in a variety of business and production roles. Although he developed a number of games on his own during the early '80s, Kevin originally spurned a life dedicated to technology and opted to attend the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television where he majored in screenwriting and directing before combining his two passions – technology and entertainment – in the interactive entertainment industry. David Roman, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, NVIDIA: David Roman joined NVIDIA in January 2003 as Vice President of Corporate Marketing, leading the Company’s global branding, advertising, public relations and corporate marketing initiatives. Mr. Roman has 20 years experience in technology and international marketing, including a 14- year tenure at Apple Computer, where he was most recently Vice President of Worldwide Advertising and Brand Marketing. Mr. Roman also managed marketing functions for Apple Europe, Apple Pacific and Apple Australia. Prior to NVIDIA, Mr. Roman served as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing/Business Development for two e-commerce venture-funded companies, Preview Systems and ReleaseNow. Mr. Roman holds a B.S. in Architecture from Queensland University of Technology (Australia). Jeffery L. Briggs, founder, President & CEO, Firaxis Games: During the past two decades, Jeff Briggs has been a leader in bringing computer games into the world of mainstream entertainment. His career in game making started in historical simulation board games at West End Games in New York City. From there he went to MicroProse Software, where he began a long- time collaborative relationship with the legendary game designer, Sid Meier, producing, directing and designing gaming classics such as the mega-hit title Sid Meier’s Civilization, Sid Meier’s Pirates, F-19 Stealth Fighter, F-117A Stealth Fighter and Sid Meier’s Colonization. A classically trained musician, Jeff has also written the musical scores for over 30 computer games, as well as a host of concert pieces that have received performances worldwide. Jeff founded Firaxis Games in 1996, and under his leadership the company has become one of the world’s leading developers of top selling computer games, creating blockbuster titles including the Sid Meier’s Civilization III series, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Sid Meier’s Gettysburg. Jeff has a Doctorate in Music Composition and Theory from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, a Master of Music from Memphis University, and a Bachelor of Science from the Eastman School of Music. He is an avid student of history. In recognition of his entrepreneurial spirit and outstanding leadership skills, Jeff was named the winner of Maryland’s 2003 Ernst and Young Software Entrepreneur of the Year award and honored as Smart CEO Magazine’s 2004 CEO of the Year.