Wednesday, January 5 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM Track II - GP10: Casual and Downloadable Games: Market of Growth - Market of Opportunity Casual games are now big business. With all the major players from AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft right in the middle of the action, this sector is the hottest new player in the games field. With the expansion of the games industry reaching into all demographic sectors, from kids to hard core gamers and now with women, seniors and teens being drawn further into games, whether through the expansion of PC and broadband, portable players and mobile devices, through interactive TV or simply through the greatness of the new consoles, the casual gaming experience, facilitated by the downloading opportunity on all platforms is driving a formidable marketplace. What will this market look like in the future? How will the games played evolve? What will the growth from simple to sophisticated game and game player look like? We are just at the start of a new phenomenon. Greg Mills, Program Director, AOL Games, America Online Geoff Graber, Director, Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Inc. Duncan Magee, Senior Director, Content, RealArcade, RealNetworks, Inc. Scott Cohen, President, Game Trust, Inc. Wade Tinney, partner & founder, Large Animal Games Yoav Tzruya, Vice President, Products & Markets Strategy, Exent Technologies Tim Harris, SVP/Partner, SMG Play, Moderator Duncan Magee, Senior Director of Content, RealArcade, RealNetworks, Inc.: Duncan has worked in the interactive entertainment industry his entire career and has a first hand knowledge of both the core gamer and the casual gamer and what contrasts these two markets. First as an entrepreneur, Duncan created a company that produced PC-CD interactive games. From there he moved on to work for game industry giant Electronic Arts working on the EA SPORTS product line and brand. But the thought of building interactive entertainment for the masses pulled him away from EA SPORTS and into online casual games where he moved to the online division of Electronic Arts: EA.com. Today, Duncan is in charge of content and subscription services at RealNetworksí consumer games product, RealArcade. RealArcade is the worldwide leader in down-loadable games for grown ups. Geoff Graber, Director, Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Inc.: Geoff Graber is director of Yahoo! Games (http://games.yahoo.com), one of the primary offerings within Yahoo!’s Media and Entertainment business unit. Graber oversees the strategy and business direction for Yahoo! Games, including content creation, business development, web site production, marketing and engineering. Yahoo! Games is currently the No. 1 games site on the Web according to Nielsen//NetRatings and hosts more than 10 million unique users and 6 billion minutes of game play per month. Before heading up Yahoo! Games, Graber formulated and executed business development strategies for Yahoo! Mobile. He was responsible for establishing and fostering integral partnerships with wireless carriers, technology companies, handset OEMs and content developers, including major deals with Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, and Qualcomm. Graber also spearheaded the key initiative to build a mobile games business for Yahoo!. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Graber spent nearly 10 years in the interactive entertainment industry. In 1994, he formed Electronic Arts’ operation in China and served as the Managing Director until 1998. Thereafter, he co-founded Muse Corporation, a provider of an interactive, multiplayer software platform for broadband entertainment applications. Next, Graber developed a background in the mobile entertainment space, consulting for clients such as Nokia, Moviso (a Vivendi Universal company now owned by InfoSpace), and several mobile game developers. Graber started his career in high tech corporate finance and venture capital. He held top-level positions at BankAmerica Capital Corp. and IDG China Ventures. He also founded IQI Accessories, a developer of laptop computer products, and helped startup companies complete business plans and raise seed capital through his firm, PlanPerfect Startup Services. Graber holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies and Business from the University of California, Los Angeles. Wade Tinney, partner & founder, Large Animal Games: Wade has been designing and developing games since 1996. He has a BA in Spanish literature from the University of Delaware and an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design. Wade was a contributing editor of the IGDA’s 2004 Web and Downloadable Games Whitepaper and is the founder and editor of the IGDA Online Games Newsletter. Wade has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in game design at Parsons School of Design and New York University and is a frequent speaker and presenter at industry events. Wade founded Large Animal Games with partner Josh Welber in January of 2001. Since then, Large Animal has developed games for clients such as LEGO, MTV, the New York Philharmonic, Discovery Channel, and Mattel. Their original titles, such as AlphaQUEUE, Unipong, TeamUp, and the forthcoming RocketBowl, are distributed through leading casual game portals such as Yahoo Games, Shockwave.com, and RealArcade. AlphaQUEUE was a finalist in the 2004 Independent Games Festival. Tim Harris, VP/Partner, SMG Play, Tim Harris comprises the creative component of the leadership duo helming SMG Play, the advertising industry’s premiere agency unit dedicated to leverage video games as a consumer contact medium. He brings years of media experience, a reputation for ingenuity and a mastery of pop culture to the table in order to create marketing plans that connect brands with people via the gaming experience. Currently, Harris leads the SMG Play unit—along with co-partner PJ MacGregor—to consult a number of SMG clients on how best to enter the gaming arena and offer relevant brand benefits to engaged consumers. He is directly responsible for: guiding creative content development; crafting brand value through gaming media plan implementation; searching out forward-thinking clients; and reinforcing existing connections in gaming development and distribution. Before launching Play, Harris shared his unique business sense with digital and online sister agency Starcom IP in 1999 to help launch the company and garner new client business. During this time he immersed himself in building the IP brand on a firm foundation by securing a dedicated staff and a happy client roster. The company now has more than 70 full-time employees staffing offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. While serving as the director of messaging and cross-contact architecture for Starcom IP, Harris fueled brand power for Miller Brewing Company, Coca-Cola, Nintendo, U.S. Army, General Motors and Lego. Harris’s trend-spotting skills even contributed to some well-known and award winning marketing campaigns, such as Nintendo’s Perfect Dark Viral campaign and the content aggregation model of the Miller Lite Network. Harris earned his bachelor’s of art degree in telecommunications from Indiana University in 1996. He was born in 1973 in Portsmouth, Virginia and currently resides on the North side of Chicago with his wife, Amy. When he’s not in the office honing his skills as a game developer, Harris can be found at home reading comic books and—you guessed it—playing video games. Yoav Tzruya, Vice President, Products & Markets Strategy, Exent Technologies: With over 14 years experience in software development and marketing, Yoav Tzruya is in charge of evaluating potential markets for Exent, defining product strategy and roadmaps, and bringing Exent's messages and products to the market. As a recognized industry expert in the fields of broadband value-added services and business support systems, Tzruya is a frequent speaker at industry leading events. Tzruya came to Exent from TeleKnowledge, a billing & customer care software vendor. During his tenure at TeleKnowledge, Tzruya was responsible for product strategy, marketing, product management and other areas, serving as VP Product Strategy, VP Marketing and VP Product Management. Yoav holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics (cum laude) and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science (cum laude) from Tel Aviv University. Scott Cohen, President, Game Trust Inc.: Scott Cohen serves as President of Game Trust Inc., the leading provider of gaming infrastructure. As President, he is responsible for domestic and international sales, strategic acquisitions, client services and business development. The Game Trust platform now reaches 50-million players each month throughout North America, Europe, and Latin America, counting ShockWave, MiniClip and Star Media among its major clients. Cohen joined Game Trust in April 2004, and brings over 25 years of expertise in strategic development, deal making and successful negotiations. For several web-related enterprises, Cohen has built sales teams coast to coast and in Europe, developed client services to support accelerated growth, and conducted work-outs and reductions in periods of downturn. His career exhibits leadership in the interactive field in the United States and Europe, and exceptional performance in both corporate and entrepreneurial environments. As a co-founder and/or senior level executive, Cohen was critical to the success of two IPO's over the past six years: LivePerson (LPSN on the NASDAQ exchange) and 24/7 Media (TFSM on NASDAQ). His responsibilities included business development, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, finance, strategic planning, management consulting, and client services. As part of the senior management team, he worked to raise more than $150 million from the public markets and private investors for affiliated companies (Market Cap at IPO over $700 million). Prior to Game Trust, Cohen served as Partner in the Red Tie Media consulting group, assisting venture capitalists and CEO's to help nascent and leading companies expand market share, develop business plans, hire and train their sales force, secure investment, and identify and negotiate potential deals, mergers or acquisitions. Industries of focus included Internet, technology, media, M&A, banking, real estate, and consulting. Long-standing company affiliations, board memberships and Red Tie clients include: LivePerson, 24/7 Media, Petry Media Corp, New World Communications Group, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Revlon, Coopers & Lybrand, EWomp, BeliefNet, Network Commerce, Universal Music, Six Degrees (YouthStream Networks), ShopNow, Next Response, FinanCenter and many others. Cohen began his career in real estate and opened his own firm in 1981. In the late 1980's, he founded a network of commercial real estate affiliates, charged with responding to proposals from the US Resolution Trust Corporation. Metropolitan Asset Corp. grew to encompass over 40 major US cities, handling multi-million dollar transactions, including hotels, shopping malls, office complexes and other investment sales, appraisals and work-outs. Cohen earned his Masters in Business Administration from the William Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, after ten years of professional experience in business and real estate. He presently serves on the Board of Directors and/or Board of Advisors for several Internet and technology companies.