NIDZUMI+

It is often said that everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame. Next week it will be Scotland’s turn as the annual Edinburgh Interactive Festival makes a welcome return to the games industry events calendar. It’s a growing event for everyone for everyone with opportunities from regular gamers to play the next big releases of the year and a chance for industry big wigs to sit down together and have a chat about where the industry is going and maybe have a look at some more groundbreaking technology that is breaking its way into games.

This year we will be visiting the event to have a look at what is going on and maybe even have a chat with some of the industry’s biggest names to see what their thoughts are.

There is actually a lot going on this year and it’s not just all for industry folk. There will be chances for regular gamers to see screenings and also get their hands on Eidos’ big releases for the year, Batman: Arkham Asylum and IO Interactive’s quirky Mini Ninjas. Nintendo will also be there to give you a chance to try out the Wii Sports Resort and see what you make of Motionplus. Disney will also be there giving you a chance to sing along to the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana with Sing It: Pop Hits and get your hands on Toy Story Mania, a carnival game based on the classic Pixar movie series.

On the industry side of things there will be appearances from some of the industry’s biggest names. The main keynote speaker this year is Peter Moore, President of EA Games, who will be talking about how he has turned around the publishing giant and what direction they will be heading in. He will also be sitting on a panel about the future of huge blockbuster titles alongside Ian Livingstone, Life President of Eidos, Ray Maguire, Head of Sony UK, Kristian Segerstrale from Playfish and analyst Sean Dromgoole.

Other high profile speakers include Peter Cowley, MD of Digital Media for Endemol, Jagex’s Simon Seefeldt and Margaret Robertson, industry consultant and former editor of Edge. The festival is also home to the Edge Award for Innovation, which we will have for you as soon as it is announced.

The final highlight of the festival is arguably one of the most important. Protoplay is the showcase for the Dare to be Digital competition. The University of Abertay and Channel 4’s annual contest pits teams of young developers against each other in a 10 week contest to build a working prototype of their own original game idea. Protoplay signals the end of the competition and gives the teams a chance to let the public have go at their finished titles. As an added bonus, the three finalists from Dare are nominated for the Ones to Watch BAFTA, which will be awarded at next year’s ceremony at the beginning of March.

I am pretty excited to be heading over there to check out the action and I am hoping to bring you all some interesting news from the festival.