3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Track II:
Greenlighting Games: As Budgets and Grosses Expand: From Rights Holders and Title Development to Games Publishers and Hollywood Studios to Brand Extension and Ancillary Rights
In this session, we bring together a group of experts in the games industry who are at the front lines of greenlighting games. While the games industry may out gross the film industry in total revenue, the secrets behind the process of games production are hardly the topic of general conversation in the corridors of Hollywood. Understanding the "secret sauce" of the games industry is the question at hand. What are the elements behind deal-making in the games industry? As game budgets grow and all the creative elements and rights holders in the entertainment process from actors, directors, studios and composers to games developers and games distributors take their place at the table, the process of greenlighting a project become more and more complex. We are pleased to bring together such a distinguished group of experts to give us insight into this process.
Keith Boesky, founder, Video Game Department, International Creative Management
Louis Castle, Vice President; Electronic Arts Los Angeles
Germaine Gioia, Vice President, Licensing, THQ
Marc Jackson, Game Industry Specialist, Film Finance, Inc.
Kurt Buecheler, President & CEO, The b EQUAL Company
Jim Charne, former, President & Executive Director, Academy of Interactive Arts, Moderator
Louis Castle, Vice President, Electronic Arts Los Angeles: Louis Castle is the co-founder of Las Vegas’ Westwood Studios, a world renowned entertainment software company of over 250 employees, and served as the general manager or COO for 18 years. Louis is now one of the Senior Studio Leaders at Westwood’s parent company, EALA, a studio with over 500 employees located in West Los Angeles. Castle helps direct EALA’s programming, artwork, audio, and research & development departments, as well as its business strategy. EALA creates product for some of the most successful and best-known intellectual properties within Electronic Arts’ formidable portfolio including the original product lines of Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer and licensed properties Lord of the Rings and James Bond.
Marc Jackson, Game Industry Specialist, Film Finance, Inc.: Marc has over a decade of executive-level experience in video game production and publishing. He currently serves as production executive and game industry specialist for Film Finances Inc ("FFI"), and also advises a German game fund and a US-based game production company. Before joining FFI, Marc served as co-publishing production executive at Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment. He has held senior operational positions including CEO of console game developer Player 1 and product development executive for Infogrames Entertainment (parent company of Atari), and has performed numerous consulting assignments in both console and online gaming. Prior to joining the interactive entertainment industry, Marc worked as project manager for Walt Disney Imagineering on the Disneyland Paris theme park project. He holds an MBA from HEC Paris, and a BA from the University of Michigan. Marc is a dual US-EU citizen, is bilingual English-French, and lives in Malibu, California with his wife, daughter and son.
Keith Boesky, founder, Video Game Department, International Creative Management: Keith Boesky has been active in the content and technology communities as an attorney, a senior executive and agent. In November of 2002, Mr. Boesky formed the video game department within International Creative Management, one of the largest talent agencies in the world. The department translates games to film, brings film and television talent to games and assists studios in maximizing the value of their intellectual property. From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Boesky was the principal of Boesky & Company. Boesky & Company assisted its clients in bridging the communication gap between the worlds of content and technology. These engagements included assistance in strategic applications of technology for content Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, Squaresoft and The Upper Deck Company and advice to Apple Computer, Thomas Weisel Partners, LLC and Pacific Century Cyberworks regarding investments. In 1996, shortly after representing Eidos Interactive, Inc. (NASDAQ: EIDSY) in its initial public offering, Mr. Boesky left the practice of law to join Eidos as its President. While at Eidos Mr. Boesky focused on expansion of Eidos properties, including "Tomb Raider" and "Lara Croft.," into film, toys and publishing as well as the acquisition of new properties, such as "Final Fantasy VII PC" and "Fear Effect." From 1992 to 1996 Mr. Boesky was an attorney with Cooley Godward, where his practice included public and private finance and intellectual property protection, while his core practice covered the protection and exploitation of franchise properties. Over the next few years Mr. Boesky grew the practice into one of the United States’ largest new media practices, covering developers and publishers of content ranging from home gaming platforms to location based entertainment. For two years prior to joining Cooley Godward, Mr. Boesky practiced with the firm of Baker & McKenzie. Mr. Boesky sits on the advisory boards of Pulse Entertainment, The Marketing Factory and Angel Studios. Mr. Boesky served on the Boards of Directors of the UCSD Cancer Center Foundation and the UCSD Thriver’s Network. He was founding president of the National Association of Cancer Patients. He has spoken on the topics of interactive media, branding and interactive television at Comdex, NATPE, NAB, Showbiz Expo, IBC, The Rotterdam Film Festival, Digital Hollywood and a number of other conferences and has been a guest lecturer at UCLA. He received a B.A. in economics from UCLA and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a J.D. from University of San Diego.
Kurt Buecheler, President & CEO, The b EQUAL Company.: Kurt brings over 20 years of technology management experience and digital media expertise to The b EQUAL Company, along with relationships with numerous consumer content providers. He served as Senior Director of the Windows Media division for 7 years at Microsoft, where he built and managed their largest worldwide Business Development Group (closing 300-700 deals each year) and led a global effort to bring audio and video to the PC. Kurt was a founding team member and VP of Sales and Business Development at eShop Incorporated (an online shopping platform), which was acquired by Microsoft. In addition, he managed U.S. and European sales of tablet PC operating systems for GO Corporation. Kurt also assisted in launching the original PC at IBM, and he held a management position at Xerox.
Jim Charne is a California, New York, and New Jersey lawyer who has provi
ded counsel in all phases of interactive software entertainment since the mid-1980's. Jim entered the industry in 1983 as a producer for Activision, and served as VP Legal & Business of console developer Absolute Entertainment. Jim was the first President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), is a member of the Advisory Board of G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild), and is a voting member of AIAS, International Game Developers Association (IGDA), and the Recording Academy (NARAS). Jim has been chair of the Legal and Business tutorial at Game Developers Conference since 1998, and writes "Famous Last Words," a monthly column on games contracting and business issues for www.igda.org. He can be reached by email at charne@sprintmail.com or on the web at www.charnelaw.com.