Andrew House took Sony to the top of the video game console business with the PlayStation 4, and then he walked away from it. House served for 27 years at Sony in various roles, lastly as the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment. But he stepped down in the fall. You might think he would go quietly into the sunset. But House is going to speak at GamesBeat 2018 in a fireside chat with Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors. Their talk is entitled, “Consoles: The past and the future?”
I’m very much looking forward to hearing from House, who has a delightful Welsh accent and years of stories and wisdom about running one of the most difficult jobs in the video game business.
He will join more than 80 speakers at the secluded The Seminary at Strawberry in Mill Valley, California, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Our dates and agenda are still the same at April 9 and April 10. Our conference is all about making games better and improving the business, and our speakers should give us a window into the future of game technologies.
You can get your tickets here at 30 percent off our rate using the code DEAN. We’ve also got a new $500 code for indie game developers, IndieVIP, on this link. The event is almost sold out.
House joined Sony in 1990, when he worked in Tokyo in the corporate communications department. In 1995, he transferred to Sony Computer Entertainment to run marketing and communications for the launch of the Sony PlayStation. In March, 1996, he was promoted to vice president of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, and he was promoted again in 2002 to executive vice president of SCEA. From 2005 to 2009, he served as chief marketing officer for all of Sony. From 2009 to 2011, he was co-CEO and then CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. House became group CEO of Sony’s entire game business at Sony Computer Entertainment (later renamed Sony Interactive Entertainment), replacing Kaz Hirai, and in 2013, he helmed the press conference where Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4, which has become the leading game console.
Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors, founded Frank N. Magid Associates’ internet practice in 1995 and gaming practice in 2001. He is a leading analyst and adviser in the gaming and digital spaces. He also leads Magid’s practice advising investment firms on media and technology assets.
Previous to Magid, Vorhaus worked in technology transfer/corporate fundraising at Caltech for seven years and then spent eight years working at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as University of California Santa Barbara, where he was assistant vice chancellor.
Vorhaus has been a columnist in Ad Age and is quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, etc. regularly and has appeared on CNBC and Bloomberg numerous times. Mike is a Director of Perion. Mike is also a director of Maestro.io, a livecasting and Esports infrastructure company that is venture-funded.
Mike graduated from Wesleyan University in 1979 with a B.A. in Sociology/Psychology, cum laude. Mike served as a United States Capitol Page from 1973 to 1975. He later served as a part-time Advance Man for the Carter and Clinton White Houses. He has moderated numerous sessions in the past for GamesBeat events.
Our speakers fit within the larger theme of The Future of Games: Better games, better business. If you could see the future of games before it happens, that would give your business a competitive advantage. Our event will let the hottest game developers, publishers, and investors talk with their peers and business executives about their insights into the future of games.
GamesBeat Summit 2018 is the destination conference for networking, inspiration, and intelligent interaction. With the right people in the room to make great deals happen, our flagship industry event attracts the best game and tech developers and publishers, executives, marketers and venture capitalists. This event is intended for VP-level executives and the hottest game developers and publishers.
We’ll delve into the strategies of the future for gaming, and how to drive excitement, growth, and new startups. Our talks will feature augmented reality, virtual reality, esports, influencers, mobile games, core games, indies, new game technologies, and the connection between games, tech, and science fiction. We want to expose you to ideas like The Leisure Economy, where everyone in the future will be able to make a living playing games.
Games have changed as they’ve reached a billion people and $116 billion in yearly revenues, reaching the mainstream like they never have before. Can we still apply the lessons from the past to the current and future marketplace? And what type of innovations and companies will draw the blueprint of what’s to come? So much of the industry’s internal narrative has been about it being cutting-edge. How can we imagine a broader set of drivers other than technology that will shape the industry?
Our previously announced speakers include:
- show host and Spiketrap cofounder Adam Sessler
- science fiction writer Eliot Peper
- John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Labs
- Andrea Rene, game host
- Aaron Loeb, president of FoxNext Games Studios
- Philip Rosedale, CEO of High Fidelity
- Janina Gavankar, lead actress of Star Wars: Battlefront II
- congressional candidate Brianna Wu
- Tencent’s Dan Brody, vice president of business development at Tencent
- Rand Miller, co-creator of Myst and Riven
- John Underkoffler, CEO of Oblong Industries and science adviser for the influential sci-fi film Minority Report;
- Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs, CEO of Neverdie Studios
- Josh Yguado, president and chief operating officer of Jam City
- Joost van Dreunen, CEO of SuperData Research
- Nick Earl, CEO of Glu
- Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors
- Michael Metzger, Drake Star
- Chris Heatherly, head of NBCUniversal’s new game business
- Perrin Kaplan, principal at Zebra Partners
- Bill Roper, chief creative officer at Improbable
Advisory board
- Nicole Lazzaro, CEO of XEO Design
- Noah Falstein, chief game designer at Google
- James Zhang, CEO of Concept Art House
- Joost van Dreunen, CEO of SuperData Research
- Peter Levin, president of Lionsgate Interactive
- Jamil Moledina, Google Play
- Michael Metzger, senior vice president at Houlihan Lokey
- Mihir Shah, CEO of Immersv
- Gordon Bellamy, visiting scholar at USC
- Kate Edwards, former executive director at IGDA
- Tom Sanocki, CEO of Limitless
- Phil Sanderson, managing director at Ridge Ventures
- Perrin Kaplan, principal at Zebra Partners
- Sibel Sunar, CEO of Fortyseven Communications
- David Edery, CEO of Spry Fox
- Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors
Topics will include:
- Intersection of sci-fi, games, and tech
- Platforms: Where to place your bets? AR, VR, & more
- Creating a culture of inspiration and creativity
- Emerging markets for games
- Monetization: How to acquire and retain users
- Esports and building the community
- Deals: Follow the money
- Diversity and the expanding ecosystem
- Early Access as a business model
- How mods can launch new game genres
- What game engine should you use?
Sponsors include: Intel, Worldpay, Appodeal, Unreal Engine, Accel, Universal, Google, Streamlabs, Yomob, Altered Ventures, Mindmaze, Consul General of Canada, Pearl Abyss, Leyou, Jam City, Scalefast, Gfycat, AppOnboard, and Mobcrush.