Summary report of All-Russian Conference on Game Industry 2010

On October 27-28, 2010 in Business centre “Japan House" the second annual event - the All-Russian Conference on Game Industry (ACGI) occurred. It was organized by the Russian association of developers and publishers of game industry and interactive technologies (RADIT).

Crytek company became the gold sponsor of ACGI for the second time. Сrytek GmbH is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment well-known for its own 3D-technology CryENGINE®.

Level 3 Communications company became the silver sponsor of ACGI 2010. Level 3 Communications is a premier international provider of fiber-based communications services.

Progrestar Inc. company is also the sponsor of ACGI 2010. Progrestar is the leading full-cycle online applications developer for social networks.

General media sponsor of the event is MAIL.RU company. Mail.Ru is the leading player in online-communication and entertainment spheres in Russian and Eastern Europe.

ACGI partners: Socialist (by Gameland), European Games Developer Federation (EGDF), AIOMI, Dubai World Game Expo (DWGE), IVDC, Pockett Videogames, 178 Games, BYTEmag.ru, StartupPoint, Navystavke.ru and others.

This year ACGI was devoted to the questions of online games and social games business and was focused on attracting the heads of companies and top-management.

Over 150 people visited the event: the heads of the leading Russian, Western and Asian development companies, publishers, consulting companies, the representatives of financial-investment and banking sector, services suppliers, localization companies, expert communities and others.

ACGI 2010 was held in the several formats: conference, pitching of start-up projects and business matching.

The event was opened by the speech of Vsevolod Leonov, Vice-president on international business development, MAIL.RU. Vsevolod spoke about the perspectives of games publishing in Russian social networks. He estimated the volume of Russian market of social games at 70M USD, total number of gamers reached 60M.

The following questions became the priority themes of the speeches on the conference: the specific of releases of Russian IT products in Russian social networks and abroad, the issues of search and communication with publishers, the questions of monetization, the importance of technical support, the specific of Asian IT products adaptation on the Russian market etc.

The projects’ pitching was carried out on the second day, October 28, and was organized jointly with ACGI 2010 partner – community of startup teams and investors - “Startup Point”. The projects for social networks were presented within the traditional format “Elevator Pitch” and were valued by the leading experts of Russian game industry.

Business matching also caused the interest among the attendees. The conference organizing committee gave an opportunity to arrange meetings online and hold negotiations in special hall during all 2 days.

The visit of delegation from Taiwan became one the key events at ACGI this year. The members of the delegation were the representatives of the leading development companies of online games, games for social networks, console projects (XPEC Entertainment Inc., Unalis Corporation, International Games System Co., Ltd., Gamania Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd, Keystone Game Studio) as well as the representatives of Taiwan Computer Association (TCA) and Game Industry Promotion Alliance (GIPA).

The main aim of Taiwanese guests visit became the participation in Russian - Taiwanese forum which was hold out within ACGI 2010 on October, 28. Mr. Aaron Hsu, Chairman of GIPA and CEO of XPEC Entertainment Inc was the main speaker from Taiwanese side. The Representative (Head) of the Representative Office for the Taipei-Moscow Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission (TMECCC) Mr. Antonio C.S. Chen became the special guest of the forum. Mr. Antonio C.S. Chen had a speech in whitch he spoke about the perspectives of collaboration between two countries in game industy and multimedia fields.

The companies Nival Network, Progrestar Inc, i-Jet Media took part in the forum from the Russian side. Konstantin Popov, the President of Russian association RADIT was the forum’ moderator.

As a forum result the solemn signing of the memorandum about collaboration between Russian association of developers and publishers of game industry and interactive technologies (RADIT) and Association GIPA has taken place.

Attendees’ feedbacks about ACGI 2010:

"We spent a lot of time waiting due to the traffic in Moscow, however, when the conference officially launched, it was worth the wait. If Russia can work more closely with Taiwan's game industry in terms of exceptional people, projects and creativity, I believe Russia's game will be as famous as Russia's vodka and caviar internationally in no time."

Aaron Hsu, Chairman at XPEC Entertainment Inc.

“Today the Russian market of social applications is under development and forming. For market further growth it is very important for Russian companies to have strong communication and share the experience not only with each other but also with the representatives of foreign development companies and publishers. We would like to thank the organizers of the All-Russian conference on game industry and interactive technologies 2010 for providing the professional platform for realization of these aims and goals. On ACGI we met not only our partners and friends but also renewed many business contacts and established new business connections. We will attend the next year event with pleasure”.

Andrey Fadeev, CEO and founder of Progrestar Inc.

“Making decision on attendance at ACGI 2010 first of all we were guided by the necessity to hold as much negotiations with professional community as possible. Analyzing the experience of last year conference (ACGI 2009) we understood that calm business environment that was provided by the organizers this year is the best format for fruitful work. Besides, the fact that the representatives from South-Eastern Asia attended the conference was very important. This market is one of the key ones for our business.

The suggested format of the conference has not been used in Russia before. The format allowed to have your own meeting place and to book meetings during the day.”

Dmitry Guseff, Marketing Director Deputy at StarForce Technologies

"I really enjoyed taking part in the ACGI conference this year. The conference gave me a very usefully and good insight view as well as a lot of information about the status quo of the Russian games industry. In addition I learnt a lot about the Taiwan games industry due to the partnership between the two countries. The conference was very well organized and the business matchmaking event allows me to get in direct touch with game companies from Russia and Taiwan. I'm looking forward to the next ACGI event in 2011."

Frank Holz, Managing director at IEM Consulting

“Thanks for the invitation for the conference and an opportunity to share our ideas about modern market of social games. It is great that not only Russian developers but also colleagues from Europe and Taiwan could come for the event. I would like to note the contribution of Association RADIT to the development of game industry in Russia and to express the hope on further collaboration including the question of promotion of Russian social games on international markets”.

Oksana Loginova, Commercial director at i-Jet Media

“I was glad to attend ACGI 2010. During 2 days of the event I had an opportunity to listen to the interesting presentations as well as meet many conference attendees and discuss different topics in the field of game industry. It was a pleasure to talk with the representatives of known Russian, European and Asian companies. I would like to thank the organizers very much and would be glad to take part in ACGI 2011”.

Roman Kupchikov, Account Manager at i-Jet Media

In the nearest time the presentations of the speakers and videos will be available for the registered users of our website. From the side of the organizers we would like to thank all the attendees, sponsors, media partners and invite everybody on ACGI 2011!

Detailed information about the Conference: www.acgirussia.ru
Contacts:
Anastasia Barkhatova
E-mail: a.barkhatova@radit.ru
Tel.: +7 (499) 615 86 82