Round-Up: Rolling The DICE In Las Vegas

Author: by Staff

Executives from firms including BioWare, Namco Bandai, the ESA, and Blizzard were out in force at last week's DICE executive summit in Las Vegas, and Gamasutra was there to bring you all the details. Here's a full round-up of the coverage of the AIAS-run summit, including headlines and descriptive paragraphs for all the sessions we covered during the event. In addition, look out for executive interviews to appear on Gamasutra over the next few days. Here's the full coverage to date: - DICE: Mass Effect, Bioshock, Rock Band Devs On Developing Narrative "BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka, BioShock's Ken Levine and Harmonix VP Greg LoPiccolo gathered at the DICE Summit to discuss the development and implementation of narrative in the context of their games, as they all shared excitement on its growing importance -- and expanding definitions." - DICE: Matsuura Sees More Possibilities For Music Games "Addressing an audience at the DICE Summit, NanaOn-Sha founder Masaya Matsuura called for more original music in rhythm games, and expressed his disappointment that more games aren't being used to further cultural good." - DICE Keynote: EA's Riccitiello On A New Future For Publishing "At his DICE Summit keynote, EA CEO John Riccitiello said the industry was in desperate need of a new publishing model, giving a starkly frank look at the successes and failures of the publisher, and predicting the garage studio model was dead and that by 2010, the publishing landscape would be significantly downsized." - AIAS Names Call of Duty 4 Game Of The Year "The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced the winners of its Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, revealing top honors for Call of Duty 4 as Overall Game of the Year, and inducting Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime into the Hall of Fame -- complete list of winners within." - DICE: Namco's Hector On Character From Sonic to Afro Samurai "At the DICE Summit, Namco Bandai product development head Roger Hector shared the lessons from his decades of experience working with game characters from Disney to Sega, to illustrate how far we've come -- and to demonstrate how good characters can give rise to iconic franchises." - DICE: ESA's Gallagher Urges Industry To Strive For More "At the DICE Summit, ESA president Michael Gallagher praised the game industry for its year 2007 successes in reaching new audiences and increasing its mainstream relevance, but urged further growth to even more consumers, and encouraged vigilance in defending gaming against detractors." - DICE: Mizuguchi Talks Artistry And Commerce In Concert "Q Entertainment designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, of Rez and Lumines fame, is known for his artistry in game design, and at the 2008 DICE Summit in Las Vegas, he shared influences from his history to demonstrate how creativity and profitability aren't necessarily exclusive in this hit-driven business." - DICE: Team Blizzard On Building Its 17 Year Success "Coming on Blizzard's 17th anniversary as a company, CEO Mike Morhaime, design VP Rob Pardo, and development VP Frank Pearce got together at the DICE Summit to reflect, and to discuss how small steps on a long journey helped create a game industry giant." - DICE: Microsoft's Kim Takes Tough Questions On Console War "At the DICE Summit, New York Times' Seth Scheisel quizzed Microsoft Game Studios' Shane Kim in a "20 Questions" session, taking on 3rd parties, innovating, the company's role in the PC market, and whether it should have acquired Blizzard when it had the chance." - DICE Fight Club: Industry Vets Debate Retail Vs. Microtransations "In the second of a pair of Fight Club-inspired debates at the DICE Summit, Sony and THQ vet Kelly Flock went up against Nexon director Min Kim to exchange views on traditional publishing models versus free distribution." - DICE Fight Club: Budgets, Not Consolidation Edging Out Innovation "Will industry consolidation kill innovation and risk? At the DICE Summit, representatives from Benchmark Capital and Boesky and Company went head to head on the question, positing that it wasn't consolidation, but console creators pushing technology and therefore budgets that was squeezing out real innovation." - DICE Q&A: Verbinski Talks IP Challenges, Innovation "Following Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinksi's keynote speech at the 2008 DICE Summit in Las Vegas, the filmmaker fielded a number of questions from the press, offering advice for developers to break free from the patterns of substandard movie tie-in games." - DICE Keynote: Gore Verbinski Urges Creativity, 'Madness' "At his DICE Summit keynote, filmmaker Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean series) recognized that movies are his primary area of expertise, but nonetheless delved deep into games, urging the industry to avoid stagnation, and declaring that "this is the time for madness.""