Frontier's Braben To Keynote MIGS 2008

The 2008 Montreal International Game Summit will kick off with a keynote from Frontier Development's David Braben, the event organizers announced today. MIGS, now in its fifth year, will also highlight speakers and development talent from Quebec and Canada. Braben will discuss new technology trends and business models, and make predictions on the sixth generation of consoles in a session entitled "Planning For The Future." More than twenty other speakers will join the MIGS lineup this year, organizers say. This year, the event will be divided into six tracks: Game Design, Visual Arts, Technology, Production, Business and Serious Games, also adding roundtables that invite attendees and speakers to open discussion on specific topics. Presenters representing Quebec include Eidos Montreal GM Stéphane D’Astous with "Log of a Montreal Start-up"; EA Montreal's Éric Chartrand on "Should We See the World Differently? Design Better Games for a New Audience"; and Dominic Guay of Ubisoft Montreal with a talk entitled "Procedural Data Generation in Far Cry 2," among others. A few of the speakers representing Canada include Nerd Corps Entertainment Ken Faier, presenting on "Developing Multi-platform Children's Properties"; Threewave's Stéphane Morichère-Matte on "Making Great Multiplayer", and Steve Rechtschaffner of Nexon Publishing North America’s Humanature Studio with "There’s Nothing Micro about Microtransactions!" MIGS is supported by numerous local organizations including Canada Economic Development, the Quebec Ministry for Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade (MDEIE) and the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications. "Following the outstanding success of last year’s event, the Montreal International Game Summit has proven itself to be the most important East Coast industry experience for North America’s video game industry," says MIGS director Alain Lachapelle. Interested parties can find further information on MIGS at its official site.