Tetsuya Mizuguchi Confirmed For 2006 Nordic Game Conference

Organizers of the previously announced Nordic Game 2006 conference have confirmed that the upcoming event will feature Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi as a speaker, as part of the third annual event, which will take place in Malmweden, Sweden on September 19th and 20th this year, with an expected 600 participants attending. Tetsuya Mizuguchi's portfolio of video game creations cover a wide breadth of platforms and subjects, including Sega titles such as Sega Rally Championship, Rez and Space Channel 5. He left Sega studio United Game Artists (UGA) in October 2003 to co-found Q Entertainment, which has so far produced puzzle games Lumines for the PSP and Meteos for the Nintendo DS. His current projects include Lumines II and Every Extend Extra for the PSP, Lumines Plus for the PlayStation 2, and Meteos: Disney Edition, a new take on the action puzzle game featuring Disney characters for the Nintendo DS. Other scheduled speakers for the event include Wired contributing editor Julian Dibbell, Digitalmill CEO Ben Sawyer, general secretary of the Interactive Software Federation Europe Patrice Chazerand, and John Dennis and Martyn Brown from British developer Team 17. The 2006 event will be the largest of its kind in the Nordic region, with seventy seminars and workshops scheduled, capitalizing on recent Nordic-developed game titles such as Swedish developer DICE’s Battlefield series and the Hitman franchise from Danish company Io Interactive. Four simultaneous programs will consider key topics within games research, development, technology, trade, art and public interest. The conference is organized by the Nordic Game Program, a part of the Nordic cultural cooperation and funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. One of the program’s primary goals is to support the Nordic games industry through events, infrastructural activities and development funding. Further information can be found at the conference’s official website.