The Week Ahead: Feb 4-Feb 8
ANALYSIS: Preview of the week beginning February 4
The big industry event next week is the DICE Summit, taking place in Las Vegas Feb 6 — 8. This entertainment industry conference is gaining recognition for packing in top level industry players from the movie and videogame business, and 2008 is no exception.
Microsoft's Shane Kim, EA's John Riccitiello, Ubisoft's Yannis Mallat and LucasArts' Jim Ward are some of the execs delivering sessions of note, but also look out for Epic Games, Insomniac, Namco Bandai, Blizzard, THQ and Activision in a line-up that rivals this year's Game Developers Conference.
The keynote, delivered on Wednesday by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinksi, is also sure to touch on the collaboration between the two entertainment industry's and shows the calibre of talent that organisers The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences can attract.
Thursday night will also host the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with BioShock, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange box all fighting for the prestigious gongs.
GamesIndustry.biz will be at DICE for the length of the event, so expect exclusive news, interviews and comment from our US editor, as well as a full run down of award winners as they happen.
FeaturesNext week, GamesIndustry.biz will also feature exclusive interviews with two of Electronic Arts' senior executives. On Tuesday Glenn Entis talks to us about graphics, gameplay and movie tie-ins, and whether the company's collaboration with Steven Spielberg could rank the famed director as one of the greatest games designers in the business.
On Thursday, Matthew Jeffery, global head of talent will discuss the pitfalls and practicalities of students looking to break into the games industry — what do you do when you've left education burdened with GBP 18,000 of debt, a niche set of skills and no guarantee of landing a job?
Software releasesThe biggest release of this week isn't in the UK, but Japan, where Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been released for the Wii. Expect to see the game chart high in the region, although concerns of a shortage of stock may hamper the game's chances of hitting number one.