Wright to keynote ScreenBurn festival

Will Wright is to deliver a keynote at the ScreenBurn festival, a gaming event recently added to the SXSW Interactive Festival.

The event will also feature the ScreenBurn Arcade, 20 different panel discussions on gaming, tournaments and new technologies and games available to the public for the first time.

"We introduced ScreenBurn to the SXSW Interactive line-up in 2006, and received an overwhelmingly positive response," offered event director Hugh Forrest.

"Building on that success, we added more gaming-related programming in 2007, plus will launch the two-day ScreenBurn Arcade.â

"Between the expertise of the high level speakers and the all-out energy of the Arcade, I think ScreenBurn will help take SXSW Interactive to the next level in 2007," he added.

SXSW Interactive takes place in Austin, Texas, March 9-18, with ScreenBurn scheduled for March 10-13.

Other notable figures and companies taking part in the event include NCsoft, Sony Online Entertainment, Areae's Raph Koster, Warren Spector, Midway, Atari, MTV and Bioware.