slides & audio (79 MB)
What is everyone else up to? How are the portals different? How are they the same? Now you know!
our take:
The slides for this session are excellent - we suggest studying these independent of the podcast. The. ppt by RealNetworks has lots of interesting data to consider.
More detail is available in "Games Selection" (p13 of the Summer 2007 issue of the Casual Connect Magazine) and "Merchandising at Retail" (p32 of the Summer 2007 issue of the Casual Connect Magazine)
Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, 17 July 2007
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Frank Rose (email)
As a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, Frank Rose covers media and entertainment from a global perspective. In the process he’s chronicled such developments as the rise of Philip K. Dick in Hollywood, the demise of the 30-second television spot, and Sony’s gamble on the PlayStation 3, as well as the move toward digital empowerment that's given consumers unprecedented control in everything from video to advertising. He’s also led debates about the future of media at such venues as the Cannes Film Festival and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Formerly a contributing writer at Fortune and a contributing editor at Esquire, he has written extensively about the Hollywood entertainment industry and about digital technologies. Among his books are The Agency (HarperCollins, 1995), about William Morris and the evolution of show business, and West of Eden (Viking, 1989), about the power struggle between Steve Jobs and John Sculley at Apple.
Robert Nashak (email)
As general manager of Yahoo! Games, Robert Nashak oversees the growth and development of the #1 online gaming site. Nashak leads the strategy for the site’s portfolio of casual and video games, partnerships with top gaming and entertainment companies and exclusive editorial and gaming content. He joined Yahoo! in 2006.
Prior to joining Yahoo!, Nashak led creative development at Glu Mobile, the worldwide leading independent mobile games publisher of acclaimed titles such as Driver3, Project Gotham Racing and Monopoly. He was also previously vice president of product development at Acclaim Entertainment, whose franchises included AllStar Baseball, Turok and Legends of Wrestling, and was executive producer at Vivendi Universal Games. He also held positions as adjunct professor in interactive design at University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television and was a producer at Disney Online, during the earliest days of Flash.
Nashak holds a B.A. from Georgetown University where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. He went on to receive a Masters at Oxford University and was a Fulbright scholar to the Netherlands.
Andrew Pedersen (email)
In his role as Executive Producer for Pogo, Andrew Pedersen oversees the Pogo.com studio, and is intricately involved in the creation of new and innovative products and services for the online casual game player. An industry veteran with over 15 years experience in the entertainment software business, Andrew started working at Electronic Arts' Pogo.com six years ago. During that time, he has been instrumental in the growth of the brand, and driven efforts to launch Pogo.com over multiple platforms and business initiatives, including Pogo's extremely popular Club Pogo subscription gaming service, downloadables, retail distribution and mobile. In the past year alone, Andrew and his team have produced over 35+ new games and 10 new innovative features, including Avatars (called Minis) and Premium Badge Albums. Andrew was also influential in the introduction of badges when Club Pogo launched in July 2003.
Prior to joining Pogo.com, Andrew worked for companies including Mattel, Mindscape, Berkeley Systems and Broderbund Software. He has worked on both the marketing and development sides of the business and understands what it takes to create and launch successful products for a wide range of platforms.
Dave Williams (email)
Dave is a 15+ year marketing online media veteran with extensive experience in digital media and entertainment. He heads up Shockwave and AddictingGames, where he has overseen 40-50% growth rates for the past two years. Both sites attract audiences of over 19 million users per month and host hundreds of online and downloadable games, creativity applications on other digital media. Prior to his role in online games, Dave led the design and development of the Rhapsody music service as VP of product management at Listen.com and then General Manager of music products at Real Networks, following Real?s acquisition of Listen.com. Rhapsody broke ground in digital music as the first fully licensed music subscription service on the web and went on to become the largest service of its kind with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Prior to his Rhapsody experience, Dave held senior product and marketing roles at online pioneers, CitySearch and DoubleClick. He began his career the ad agency DDB Needham, and also spent several years in product management at beverage company Cadbury Schweppes before jumping into the web business in 1996.
Erik Gossens (email)
As Vice President of Game Content at Real Networks, Erik manages the overall PC-based content strategy for the games group including Real Arcade. He also oversees publishing and licensing content for Real’s studios -- Zylom and GameHouse -- as well as Real’s South American casual games destination Atrativa.
Prior to joining Real, Erik Goossens gained experience in casual gaming at Gamegate.com. He left Gamegate.com to co-found Zylom, which grew to be the largest casual games destination in Europe today. Headquartered in Eindhoven, Zylom was acquired by RealNetworks in 2006. Erik holds a business degree from the Eindhoven University.
