GDC Next reveals Assassin's Creed and RockYou talks

The GDC Next team is still working hard with the best and brightest in the game industry to organize a great session lineup for GDC Next 2014 featuring ADC this November. Today, they're excited to share two more excellent talks that will take place at this year's conference and emphasize one of its most important themes: addressing the problem of how developers can responsibly monetize their games in a sustainable, ethical manner. GDC Next and ADC, which aim to highlight practical ways for developers to increase the creative and financial success of their projects, are taking place simultaneously on November 3rd-4th, 2014 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. On the Design track, Ubisoft's Damien Kieken is coming to GDC Next to give a talk titled "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Multiplayer: Crafting Good Monetization on the Traditional Console." As the multiplayer game director for recent games in the blockbuster Assassin's Creed franchise, Kieken plans to explain the monetization design in the multiplayer portion of Assassin's Creed - and share a retrospective look back at how Ubisoft progressively introduced monetization systems into the franchise without upsetting players. During his talk he also hopes to dig deeper into specific systems that were integrated into Assassin's Creed series and explain their design, as well as share statistics that reflect what the company learned from making Assassin's Creed III and how they applied that knowledge to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Along the way, there should be lessons for everyone trying to responsibly monetize their game while keeping players happy. Over on the Business track, RockYou CEO Lisa Marino will explain how her company has found success with a "rerun" business model for games by buying up casual titles that are past their prime and operating them on a tight margin. Her GDC Next talk, "Finding Life for Game Monetization Beyond the Megahit," will analyze the issue and propose long-term solutions for game developers who want more value from the great games they've worked so hard to create. Attendees can expect to learn the painful realities behind megahits, and the difficulties in maintaining their revenue. They'll learn how to identify older games that maintain a passionate fanbase, and concrete strategies for operating them and keeping them profitable. Of course, conference organizers look forward to programming and announcing many more interesting talks in the months before this year's GDC Next featuring ADC, which takes place November 3rd-4th, 2014 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. For additional details about GDC Next and ADC or to register for the event, visit the conference homepage. Gamasutra, GDC and ADC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.