IBM to webcast series of games industry conferences

IT giant IBM has announced plans to hold a series of on-demand videogame conferences designed to offer developers, manufacturers and industry specialists a forum to discuss online gaming.

The first Virtual Game Event will take place this summer and will look at issues directly affecting launch, management and distribution of online titles. NCSoft, ArenaNet and Sony Online Entertainment have already signed up to participate.

"Games companies worldwide are turning to IBM to help transform their business," the company said in a statement.

"With its decades of experience dealing with large, high performance, high capacity online systems, IBM is uniquely positioned to assist the interactive entertainment industry to meet the needs of their on demand players."

IBM will kick off the venture at 2.30pm GMT on June 1 with the first of what it says will be quarterly events. Each attendee will be able to participate in real time, and the conference will be available as Video On Demand service after the event.

Anyone wishing to sign up for the event should visit the official IBM website.