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hi5 concluded a week of high-profile and heavily attended activities at the 2010 Game Developers Conference this week. Our presence at the show kicked off with a mixer event on Tuesday, March 9 to end the first day of the Social & Online Games Summit. The event was attended by over 400 show goers in the North hall lower lobby.
Apart from running out of beer (GDC conference organizers only expected 200 people), the event was a huge success. In addition to a progression of retro video games from different eras, we raffled off some fun prizes, including a Pac-Man joystick USB game, an Atari Flashback2, and DJ Hero.The reception was a great start to the conference, and demonstrated how much excitement there is in the community around the development of social games.
The festivities continued on Wednesday, with Alex St. John's appearance
in a panel at the GamesBeat@GDC conference. The topic of the panel was "Disruptive Game Platforms" and was moderated by Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer at GamesBeat and VentureBeat. Alex's fellow panelists included Jack Buser, U.S. Head of Sony's Home Virtual World, Gareth Davis, Games Platform Manager for Facebook, and Peter Relan, Founder and
Chairman of Aurora Feint and CrowdStar. The panel 
sparked some spirited exchanges, several of which were captured on video.
Alex St. John's remarks prompted several articles in major tech blogs, including:
For the many meetings during the week, hi5's huge lightbox display in the entrance to the Social & Online Games Summit area was a popular meeting spot to connect with potential partners and press throughout the event.
hi5's GDC run culminated with a dedicated speaking session on Wednesday, March 10 at 4:15. By 4:00, a long line had already formed outside room 122 where Alex St. John was to speak. The room filled to capacity and spilled out into the hallway, where hi5 employees did spontaneous Q&A with those who were unable to get into the session.
For the over 200 people who made it inside, they were treated to an entertaining presentation by Alex St. John, who went through the details of hi5's new Game Developer Program. In addition to Alex's remarks, three early partners in the program spoke about their experiences developing games for hi5 and why they chose to launch their games exclusively on hi5.com. The speakers included:
shots of the standing-room-only crowd.
Also on Wednesday, hi5 issued a press release announcing the Game Developer Program. The news was the latest in a series of announcements by hi5 leading up to GDC, including the acquisition of Austin-based social developer Big Six and support for a new set of Facebook compatible APIs.
sparked some spirited exchanges, several of which were captured on video.Alex St. John's remarks prompted several articles in major tech blogs, including:
- Them's fightin' words: Hi5 prez calls Zynga games 'mediocre', Games.com
- hi5 CTO: Zynga Is Mediocre. It Isn't Social, It Just Discovered An Opening For Spam, TechCrunch
- GamesBeat in Pictures: Part 1, VentureBeat
- hi5 CEO: Facebook's game strategy is schizophrenic, VentureBeat
For the many meetings during the week, hi5's huge lightbox display in the entrance to the Social & Online Games Summit area was a popular meeting spot to connect with potential partners and press throughout the event.hi5's GDC run culminated with a dedicated speaking session on Wednesday, March 10 at 4:15. By 4:00, a long line had already formed outside room 122 where Alex St. John was to speak. The room filled to capacity and spilled out into the hallway, where hi5 employees did spontaneous Q&A with those who were unable to get into the session.
For the over 200 people who made it inside, they were treated to an entertaining presentation by Alex St. John, who went through the details of hi5's new Game Developer Program. In addition to Alex's remarks, three early partners in the program spoke about their experiences developing games for hi5 and why they chose to launch their games exclusively on hi5.com. The speakers included:- Matt Wilson, Founder & Director of Development, Detonator Games
- Steve Victorino, President & COO, Immortal Games
- Dave Long, CEO & Co-founder, Exponential Entertainment
shots of the standing-room-only crowd.Also on Wednesday, hi5 issued a press release announcing the Game Developer Program. The news was the latest in a series of announcements by hi5 leading up to GDC, including the acquisition of Austin-based social developer Big Six and support for a new set of Facebook compatible APIs.
The announcement garnered widespread media coverage, including the following articles:
- Social Network Hi5 Gets Its Game On, BusinessWeek
Social network hi5 launches program to court game developers, VentureBeat- hi5 Launches Game Developer Program, DevWebPro
- hi5 Launches Game Dev Program To Attract Studios, Exclusive Titles, Gamasutra
- hi5 Launches Game Developer Program Offers Special Access to Users and Monetization, Inside Social Games
- Hi5 Launches New Game Dev Program, Virtual Goods News
Thanks to everyone from hi5 and all our partners who made this year's GDC a huge success! We'll see you again next year.
hi5 president and CTO, Alex St. John, presented hi5's new Game Developer Program to a standing-room-only audience at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Francisco yesterday. Over 200 social game developers packed the room and spilled into the hallway to learn more about this exciting new program.
For those who weren't able to attend GDC (or for the many who were turned away at the door by Moscone staff and fire marshals), the complete session was captured on video. More information about hi5's Game Developer Program and technology platform is available on our corporate site.
View hi5's Game Developer Program Session at GDC.
View crowd shots.
For those who weren't able to attend GDC (or for the many who were turned away at the door by Moscone staff and fire marshals), the complete session was captured on video. More information about hi5's Game Developer Program and technology platform is available on our corporate site.
View hi5's Game Developer Program Session at GDC.
View crowd shots.
Alex St. John, hi5's president and CTO, joined an esteemed panel today at GamesBeat@GDC on "Disruptive Game Platforms." The session was moderated by Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer at GamesBeat and VentureBeat, and included Jack Buser, U.S. Head of Sony's Home Virtual World, Gareth Davis, Games Platform Manager for Facebook, and Peter Relan, Founder and Chairman of Aurora Feint.
Video highlights of the session are available here.
Video highlights of the session are available here.
hi5's presence at the 2010 Game Developers Conference kicked off Tuesday with a hugely popular reception after the Social & Online Games Summit. The event attracted over 400 attendees who played a wide array of popular games from different eras.
Tomorrow is the main event with hi5's session unveiling our new Game Developer Program.
Tomorrow is the main event with hi5's session unveiling our new Game Developer Program.
Event details follow:
Getting Your Game
on hi5: Announcing hi5's Game Developer Program
Speaker: Alex St.
John, President and CTO, hi5
Day/Time/Location: Wednesday
4:15- 5:15 Room 122, North Hall
Description: A huge
global audience of over 50 million monthly visitors, a virtual currency
supporting over 60 payment methods worldwide, a dedicated game portal, automatic
game installs, super-charged viral channels, and collaborative game promotion -
just some of the things hi5 offers game developers. hi5 is the largest social
media site dedicated to gaming and entertainment. We make money with our
partners, not from our partners. hi5 is launching a new Game Developer Program
at GDC. Come learn more about how your game can go global in this informative,
hands-on session - talk to engineers, marketing and business development all in
one place.
All GDC passes are eligible to
attend this event.
We
encourage you to arrive early, as we anticipate a very crowded session and space
is limited.
GDC starts next week, and it promises to be an action packed event. Don't miss these hi5 activities and appearances at the show.
Tuesday, March 9, 5:30-7:30 PM, Moscone Center, North lower lobby
hi5 will be hosting a cocktail reception at the Social & Online Games Summit Mixer. In addition to an open bar and appetizers, the reception will feature an "Evolution of Gaming" experience - spanning from classic arcade games and Atari® consoles to Guitar Hero®. So come grab a drink, do some networking, and play your favorite retro games. Put the "social" in social gaming!
Wednesday, March 10, 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM, Moscone Center, Room 305, South Hall
Alex St. John, hi5 President & CTO will be speaking on a panel on "Disruptive Game Platforms" in the GamesBeat@GDC summit. The session will be moderated by Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer at GamesBeat and VentureBeat. Joining Alex on the panel will be Jack Buser, U.S. Head of Sony's Home Virtual World, Gareth Davis, Games Platform Manager for Facebook, and Peter Relan, Founder and Chairman of Aurora Feint.
Wednesday, March 10, 4:15-5:15 PM, Moscone Center, Room 122, North Hall
Alex St. John and other hi5 executives and partners will unveil the details of hi5's new Game Developer Program. This informative, one-hour session will include hi5 employees across engineering, marketing and business development to answer questions and explain everything you need to know to get your game distributed to hi5's global audience of over 50 million monthly visitors. Any GDC attendee with an Expo pass or higher may attend this free event. Pre-register for this event at our events page.
Tuesday, March 9, 5:30-7:30 PM, Moscone Center, North lower lobby
hi5 will be hosting a cocktail reception at the Social & Online Games Summit Mixer. In addition to an open bar and appetizers, the reception will feature an "Evolution of Gaming" experience - spanning from classic arcade games and Atari® consoles to Guitar Hero®. So come grab a drink, do some networking, and play your favorite retro games. Put the "social" in social gaming!
Wednesday, March 10, 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM, Moscone Center, Room 305, South Hall
Alex St. John, hi5 President & CTO will be speaking on a panel on "Disruptive Game Platforms" in the GamesBeat@GDC summit. The session will be moderated by Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer at GamesBeat and VentureBeat. Joining Alex on the panel will be Jack Buser, U.S. Head of Sony's Home Virtual World, Gareth Davis, Games Platform Manager for Facebook, and Peter Relan, Founder and Chairman of Aurora Feint.
Wednesday, March 10, 4:15-5:15 PM, Moscone Center, Room 122, North Hall
Alex St. John and other hi5 executives and partners will unveil the details of hi5's new Game Developer Program. This informative, one-hour session will include hi5 employees across engineering, marketing and business development to answer questions and explain everything you need to know to get your game distributed to hi5's global audience of over 50 million monthly visitors. Any GDC attendee with an Expo pass or higher may attend this free event. Pre-register for this event at our events page.
Alex St. John, hi5's President & CTO and long-time gaming visionary, will unveil the details of hi5's new Game Developer Program at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. This informative, one-hour session will be held on Wednesday, March 10 from 4:15 to 5:15 PM at Moscone Center, Room 122, North Hall. GDC attendees may pre-register for this free event at our events page.hi5 employees across engineering, marketing and business development will be on-hand to answer questions and explain everything you need to know to get your game distributed to our global audience of over 50 million monthly visitors. hi5's Game Developer Program offers developers:
- Free marketing and promotion across the hi5 network for new games launched exclusively on hi5
- Revenue share on advertising and commerce using hi5 Coins payment platform supporting over 60 payment methods
- A dedicated game portal and game promotional area to facilitate discovery of your game
- One-click automatic game installs, so you don't lose users at the installation step
- Super-charged social channels which don't artificially cap or limit the ability for your game to go viral.
Note: This event is available to all GDC conference pass holders, except for student passes or audio passes. If you have an Expo pass, a Summit pass, a Conference pass, or an All Access pass, you will be qualified to attend this free event. To pre-register for the event, please visit our events page.
hi5's Vice President of Marketing, Michael Trigg, is speaking today at the Engage! Expo conference in New York. The panel session at 3:30 PM, titled "Apps, Games and Goods - What Has Worked, What Hasn't?", will delve into business models for virtual goods and social gaming. Topics covered will include what has worked and how the category will evolve.Mike's fellow panelists include:
- Mihir Shah, Chief Revenue Officer, Offerpal
- Brian Balfour, VP Production, Viximo
- Adam Caplan, VP of Virtual Currency, Super Rewards
hi5's President & CTO, Alex St. John, will be speaking at AlwaysOn's OnMedia NYC 2010 conference on February 2. The two-and-a-half-day event, hosted at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City, brings together hundreds of top executives from the Internet, advertising and entertainment industries.Alex will join a panel discussion on the topic "Are Virtual Goods and Gaming the Holy Grail of Brand Integration?" moderated by Atul Bagga, a vice president at ThinkEquity and one of the leading analysts on the rapidly emerging virtual goods and social gaming marketplace. Alex's co-panelists will include:
- Nir Eyal, CEO, AdNectar
- Kevin Xu, COO, IGG
- Mitch Davis, CEO, Live Gamer
hi5 was honored along with Twitter as an AlwaysOn AO Global 250 Category Winner in the Consumer & Community category last year.
The DiscoveryBeat conference -- organized by Matt Marshall, Editor-in-Chief of VentureBeat, and Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer at GamesBeat -- was held yesterday in San Francisco. The standing-room only event was packed with developers, entrepreneurs, and executives from leading social entertainment companies. Alex St. John, hi5's President and CTO (second from right), joined Michael Chang, Founder & CEO of Greystripe (far left); Jon Vlassopulos, CEO of Moderati (second from left); and Lisa Marino, VP of Sales at RockYou (far right) in a lively panel discussion about the challenges and opportunities of large entertainment companies entering the social gaming category.St. John remarked that the recent "discovery" of micro-transactions and virtual goods as a business model has actually been a vibrant and growing part of the gaming industry for years. He also highlighted several crucial differences between traditional console games and social games -- including designing virality into the core game mechanic, the need to build an addictive game that will maximize yield from users who start playing for free, and the increasing irrelevance of IP licensing to a game's success.
The previous panel discussion included Sebastien De Halleux, COO of Playfish; John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom; Roy Sehgal, GM and Executive Producer at Zynga; and Neil Young, Founder & CEO of ngmoco. The panelists discussed the rapid pace of innovation in the social gaming space, the importance of continuous measurement and testing of key game metrics, and the fact the space is still looking for the category-defining hit -- among other topics.
For more coverage of the event, see the following articles on VentureBeat:
- 11 things I didn't know about app development
- Playfish exec says social gaming is still waiting for its Super Mario Bros.
- Zynga's tips for social gaming success
- Game makers say Apple is still the gatekeeper of success
Alex St. John, hi5's President and CTO will be speaking at DiscoveryBeat on Tuesday, December 8 at 5:40 PM. The event, being held in San Francisco at the Automattic Lounge in Pier 38, will feature industry experts from social gaming and entertainment discussing the "secret recipe" for application discovery and success.
Alex will join a panel discussion titled "Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys" -- a description of which follows:
Additional speakers and panelists in this afternoon event include: Randy Angle, Director of Game Design, SGN; Julian Farrior, CEO, Backflip Studios; Ge Wang, Co-Founder, CTO & COO, Smule; Peter Farago, VP Marketing, Flurry; Sebastien De Halleux, COO, Playfish; John Pleasants, CEO, Playdom; Roy Sehgal, GM, Zynga & Executive Producer of Cafe World game; and Neil Young, Founder & CEO, ngmoco.
More details about the event and the agenda are available on VentureBeat's site at http://events.venturebeat.com/discoverybeat2009/ Limited spaces are still available via online registration.
Alex will join a panel discussion titled "Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys" -- a description of which follows:
Established video game companies and entertainment giants are eyeing the social networking and mobile platforms as a source of future growth. For success, the big guys need to apply the secret ingredients in different proportions.
- How much should they invest in these areas, and how should they do it?
- Which kinds of partners should they recruit? Which business models are the best?
- Who has made the transition already?
- What's the right mix of social networking, marketing, analytical measurement, advertising and web design ingredients they should apply?
Panelists:
- Jon Vlassopulos (CEO, Moderati - maker of the virtual light Zippo iPhone app)
- Alex St. John (President & CTO, hi5)
- Michael Chang (Founder & CEO, Greystripe)
- Lisa Marino (VP Sales, RockYou)
- Moderator: Roy Bahat (President, IGN Entertainment)
Additional speakers and panelists in this afternoon event include: Randy Angle, Director of Game Design, SGN; Julian Farrior, CEO, Backflip Studios; Ge Wang, Co-Founder, CTO & COO, Smule; Peter Farago, VP Marketing, Flurry; Sebastien De Halleux, COO, Playfish; John Pleasants, CEO, Playdom; Roy Sehgal, GM, Zynga & Executive Producer of Cafe World game; and Neil Young, Founder & CEO, ngmoco.
More details about the event and the agenda are available on VentureBeat's site at http://events.venturebeat.com/discoverybeat2009/ Limited spaces are still available via online registration.