Autodesk's Marc Stevens

There's definitely a new breed of content provider that's being born - if you look at all of the handheld devices such as the iPhone, there are tonnes of people creating applications. Plus there's the social networking need, and it's really all about getting something out there quickly, seeing what people think, and if it doesn't work try something else.

We as a company - yes, a big part of our business is still servicing the large customers who make the blockbuster games like Call of Duty, although that doesn't happen every day. So we're learning, we're working with these people - there's a company called Unity that does a work with indie developers and so on, and we've worked with them to create an FPX interchange between our products and their engine.

We're looking to work more closely with people like that, and get to know their customers' needs - to some extent they know our tools, but the way they create content is a bit different. It's going to be an important market for us moving forwards. It's something we're very interested in.

I think that over time this stuff is going to merge together. There will be different distribution mechanisms for the content, but in the end good content is good content - a saying I hear a lot is "Content is King" - the people with good content will drive the users towards it.

We're seeing this first wave of games for handheld and social networking, and the production values for those will go up over time. The hardware is going to get better - the people that are making these games, they're learning too. Their skills are going to increase, and they'll bring in more... attaching those to well-known properties, whether it's a film or something else, companies are looking at ways they can monetise their IP in a lot of different places.

Maybe it's in the movies, maybe it's sitting at home - but if they can monetise their IP in all those places, they're going to want to do it.

I don't think it's a blip. Think about the typical demographic of game-players in the past - it's usually skewed more towards male teenagers, and I think that if you see the success of something like Farmville... I see my friends' wives playing that, the kind of people you don't expect to be playing games.

Other examples - things like Guitar Hero - they're not your traditional killing or driving adrenaline rush type of games, but they're super-popular, and with older people too.

I think the last few years the industry's actually done fairly well in broadening the demographic of people that are playing games. In the next year, are you going to surpass the number of people playing Call of Duty? Probably not, but if you look at the trend, the non-traditional gaming demographic has been growing, and I think it will continue to do so.

Well, there are a few things that will affect and change that over time. Part of that is technology, part of it is the ability to make a character that looks real - and each year we get a little bit better. Are we 100 per cent there yet? No, but there's some very good stuff out there.

But it's more than that - I think it is about an overall good story for the game. It's not just one thing that a character does, or one incident that gets people hooked. You get attached to a character in a movie, and then something happens to them - that's what makes you sad, not the one facial expression they did.

So over time it's bringing in more of the artistic talent - whether it's a director, or people that are trained and have skills in knowing how to draw people in, and give them an overall experience when they play the game. You're starting to see more of that, and I think that trend will continue.