Round-Up: Virtual IBM Conference, Virtual Baseball Training

Today's round-up includes information on IBM's on-demand game conference, as well as a baseball pitcher's use of a PSP baseball game for warm-up, plus the latest product news and job information. - IBM will host a series of conferences on the launch and subsequent maintenance of online games, the first of which is scheduled to be held on June 1 from 2:30 to 5:30 PM GMT. The conference will be held virtually as an on-demand online conference, which anyone will be able to join up and participate in; the results will be available as video-on-demand after the session has ended. IBM hopes to attract both developers and publishers to work out solutions on how to deal with complex, high-capacity online systems. MMO game developers such as NCsoft, Sony Online Entertainment, and ArenaNet are scheduled to participate in the first conference. - Johan Santana, 2004 Cy Young award winning pitcher for the Minnesota Twins, told Sports Illustrated that his pre-game ritual involves a game of electronic baseball to prepare himself for the upcoming match. "They're coming up with some good games," said Santana, "so realistic -- the stats are so accurate, and you can go from there. I'm sure a lot of players will agree with what I'm saying. Because it gives you ideas." Santana's game of choice appears to be MLB Baseball for the PlayStation Portable, developed by 989 Sports. - Also updated today: product news regarding Autodesk's support of PlayStation, as well as newly updated jobs from companies including Acony, Activision/Vicarious Visions, Black Ops Entertainment, Factor 5, Gameloft, Midway Games, and Rockstar San Diego.