GamesBeat@GDC Announces Startup Competition Finalists

Author: by Staff

Organizers of GamesBeat@GDC have announced the five finalists of the "Who's Got Game" contest, open to startup-level companies in the game development space. A panel of judges evaluated the "degree of innovation, potential for business success, and concept freshness" of the contest's applicants, and the five finalists have been granted the privilege to present their studios' pitches during the GamesBeat Summit, held at next week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The finalists are Desura, which is creating a developer- and community-driven digital distribution platform for commercial and indie PC games; Minor Studios, developer of the user-generation-heavy 3D platformer Atmosphir; Sibblingz, which connects social games across multiple platforms; Turiya, an analytics platform for online games; and BeanJar, which incentivizes online prizes with real-world rewards. The judging panel will choose a winner of the "Who's Got Game" contest after the finalists present their pitches on March 10 at 5:15 during the GamesBeat@GDC summit. GamesBeat@GDC, for which registration is still open, is a full-day event focusing on disruption in the video game industry. Already confirmed speakers include Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason, Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem, Magma Studios managing director Aroon Tan, SpikeTV host Geoff Keighley, veteran industry journalist Chris Morris, and others.