Parks Associates will moderate a special session at the Game Developers Conference Online (GDC), held October 5-8 in Austin, Texas. The session, “How economic context affects game development from start-up to grown-up companies,” will be held Thursday, October 7th, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m., and is sponsored by Canada at GDC, The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and represented by the Canadian Consulate General Dallas.

The electronic entertainment industry is going through massive transformations: financial constraints, declining software sales, increasing success of the used games segment, growing percentages of digital sales, etc. This panel, moderated by Parks Associates’ gaming analyst Pietro Macchiarella, will investigate the importance of international economic contexts in supporting the interactive entertainment industry and new strategies for developers, including retail and digital distribution.

The panel offers perspectives from executives developing games in Canada and the USA. Participants include:

Frédérick Brassard, President, 3Pod

Nils Holger Henning, Chief Communications Officer, Bigpoint

Dean Morrison, Advisor, Entertainment & Media Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP—Toronto
Brian Wong, Founder, Kiip