GC Asia officially opened

Games Convention Asia was officially opened today by the country's Acting Minister of Information, Communications and the Arts, Rear Admiral Lui Tuck Yew.

First to take to the stage was the CEO and president of Leipziger Messe - organiser of GC Online and previously Games Convention, both in Germany, as well as GC Asia - Wolfgang Marzin, who began by underlining the importance of Singapore to the region.

"Singapore represents the gateway to the most dynamic and fastest-growing games industry in the world, the Asia-Pacific market," he began, before going on to explain that part of the motivation for the event was to provide a platform for bringing together Western and Eastern business models.

The Minister then delivered the main speech, noting that the event was the biggest games show in the country, which expected to attract 120,000 business and consumer visitors this year.

"The global outlook for the videogames market is encouraging," he said, going on to quote from a report by PriceWaterhouseCooper into the industry's predicted growth. "The games market in the Asia-Pacific region will be the fastest-growing region in the coming five years. The report forecasts a 9.4 per cent compounded annual growth rate, increasing from USD 15.7 billion to an estimated USD 24.7 billion in 2013.

"Singapore's gaming industry has witnessed encouraging growth in recent years. Today the local industry comprises close to 30 home-grown development companies... and some locally-developed games have gone on to gain international recognition," he added, citing Microsoft's XNA platform as a vehicle for one title in particular.

GC Asia, now in its third year, runs until Sunday September 20, and incorporates two days of conferences - including a special day organised by DICE - and two days of consumer exhibition.