Amsterdam Game Conference Focuses on Rapidly Expanding Casual Games Market

Amsterdam, Netherlands - November 23rd, 2005 - Today the Casual Games Association announced that Casuality Europe: A Conference for Casual Game Developers, Publishers and Distributors early registration will end on November 30th, 2005. The event will be held in Amsterdam at the De Rode Hoed on the 7th and 8th of February 2006. Workshops and a facilitated networking event for all conference attendees will be held on the 9th of February 2006.

The casual gaming market in Europe is growing rapidly and with the globalization of the space, the oppertunities for European companies to sell their products and services not only in Europe but to Asia and the US is expanding. With the vigorous rate of growth of all consumers playing games, the market is shifting from focusing on marketing to male teenage gamers to a wide range of consumers in particular middle-aged women.

"Unfortunately, there were no events focused on making fun games which appeal to everyone, so we created Casuality Europe to bring resources and networking oppertunities to the professional casual gaming space in Europe. We organized the conference to be run by the community for the community" said Rutger Peters Casuality Europe Steering Committee Chairperson, "As a result, the conference is designed with the needs of the attendees and the market in mind - an independent, fun, and informative event. We have had a tremendous amount of support from the entire community for the event."

Casual games are all about playing what you want when you want it: fun and accessible gameplay on your timeline.

• Casual games are platform agnostic and commonly appear on the PC, Mac, PlayStation, PSP, Xbox, Xbox Live Arcade, GameCube, DS and Mobile phones.

• Casual games are played in a series of micro time slices, a player can spend 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes or even 5 hours at a time playing a game.

• Casual games are easy to learn, yet hard to master, they require very little investment to learn the basic gameplay mechanisms.

• Casual games appeal to a wide demographic of consumers including women of all ages.

The Casual Games Industry is growing at a tremendous pace, with many oppertunities for new and existing professionals to benefit directly from this growth. Casuality Europe will be the place to meet key players from the industry from both the US, Europe and Asia" said Casuality Europe Program Director Juan Gril. "We have a great program for attendees to learn about making games for PC download and mobile and exciting events planned."

Casuality Europe Speakers Include:

Adam Schaub- Product Manager, Yahoo! International

Adeo Ressi - CEO & Founder, Game Trust

Alexander L. Fernandez - CEO, Streamline Studios

David Bell - VP Business Development, PlayPhone

Charles Merrin - Head of Consumer Services, Real Arcade

Craig Holland - CEO, FeezeTag

Colin Cardwell - Director, 3rd Sense International

Dave Williams - Chief Marketing Officer and GM, Shockwave

David Nixon - Director of Publishing, Oberon Media

Dennis Sijnen - Designer, Zylom

Eric Tams - Senior Game Developer, PopCap Games

Eric Bethke - CEO, GoPets Live

Erica Chriss - VP Business Development, LimeLife

Gabe Zichermann - Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Boonty

Gunnar Larsén - Director Mobile Games, RealNetworks/Mr. Goodliving

Harald Riegler - Sproing

James Gwertzman - Director of Business Development PopCap Games

Jason Kapalka - Founder and Creative Director, PopCap Games

Jay Moore - Garage Games

Joel Brodie - Managing Partner, JoJu Games

Jouni Salonen - VP Business Development, J2X Technologies

Julie Pitt - GM Europe, RealArcade

Kai Bolik - CEO, GameDuell

Kenny Dinkin - VP and Executive Producer, Playfirst

Lucas John - Snowstep

Mahmoud Ali Khasawn - Founder, Quirkat

Margaret Wallace - CEO, Skunk Studios

Maria Sayans - Director of Online, Electronic Arts Europe

Mickaël IVORRA - Head of Business Development, Wanadoo, France Telecom

Michael Mei - Business Development, Reflexive Studios

Miguel Oliveira - Managing Director, BlueFish

Nick Fortugno - Senior Game Designer, gameLab

Pasi Ilola - Vice President New Products, Sulake Corporation Oy

Paul Jensen - President, Skilljam Technologies

Rob Small - CEO, Miniclip

Robb Lewis - Sr Director of Product Development Trymedia Games, Macrovision

Shawn McMichael - Group Product Manager, Microsoft Casual Games

Thomas Richter - Director of Content Sourcing, Jamba/Jamster

Wade Tinney - Founder and Game Designer, Large Animal

Casuality Europe Steering Committee:

Adam Schaub - Product Manager, Yahoo! International Games

John Welch - CEO, PlayFirst

Jenny Suh - CEO, Red Jump

Mathieu Nouzareth - President, Boonty

Riccardo Zacconi - CEO, Midasplayer

Rutger Peters - CEO, Zylom (Steering Committee Chairperson)

Program Director:

Juan Gril - Producer, JoJu Games

Managing Director:

Jessica Tams - Director of Partner Development, Trymedia, a Business Unit of Macrovision

Casuality is made possible by the support of:

PopCap Games, MidasPlayer, Zylom, Boonty, RealArcade, MSN Casual Games, Mumbo Jumbo, Custom CD, Wanadoo, Macrovision, Keyfactor, and JoJu Games

About Casuality Europe:

Casuality Europe is designed for industry professionals, industry executives, and professionals interested in creating, marketing and distributing games for everyone. The event will allow plenty of opportunities for networking and meetings as well as detailed and informative workshops for those looking to expand their knowledge of casual games. Conference content will be specifically targeted at those with five or more years of professional experience in business development, production, design or engineering.

http://www.casuality.org/

About the Casual Games Association:

The Casual Games Association is focused on providing educational resources and community support for the casual gaming industry for the purpose of bringing developers, publishers and distributors together to achieve our common goal of growing the industry to unprecedented inroads into new demographic markets. In addition to educational resources and community initiatives the association is dedicated to supporting and providing visibility into auxiliary markets, tools and related associations.

http://www.casualgamesassociation.org

For more information please contact:

Christine Souliere

Christine@casuality.org