Conference video gamers make play for contacts

Aug 21 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL gaming companies are joining the cream of the video gaming industry at a conference in Germany this week as they hunt for new business opportunities.

Support agency Northwest Vision and Media has taken six companies, including three from Merseyside, to the Games Convention in Leipzig.

Meanwhile, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, which has a development centre in Wavertree and last year bought Runcorn development company Evolution Studios, is also exhibiting at the show.

The annual Leipzig event, which runs until Sunday, is one of the industry’s biggest events, with more than 500 exhibitors from 32 countries.

Northwest Vision and Media is taking Playbox Games, 3D Creation Studio and Emote Games to Germany.

Liverpool-based Playbox is working on a number of new developments for Nintendo’s popular Wii console.

The company, which was founded in 2004 and is also developing projects for Xbox 360 and Playstation3 formats, also creates trivia games which can be played across a network of 18,000 machines in pubs.

Digital art production facility 3D Creation Studio deals with artwork from some of the world’s top studios.

It was founded in 2006 and has worked with leading companies such as Microsoft and Sega.

Emote Games was founded eight months ago, and today employs eight people at its base in Liverpool and studios in London and Derby. It is developing ways to link gaming to social networking sites.

Speaking from Leipzig, Enda Carey, head of games and digital content at Northwest Vision and Media, said: “We’re working with companies ranging from start-ups to more established businesses, working in areas from mobile gaming to art outsourcing.

“Through UK Trade and Investment, we’ve introduced them to Korean and German companies, and we’ll be getting together with other UK companies to try to stimulate business.

“It will be six or nine months down the line before we see the benefits of this event.

“But, having gone to a lot of events myself in various capacities in the industry over the years, I have seen the benefits that can come about over the long-term.”

The show opened last night with the Video Games Live Symphony Orchestra performing music from games such as Halo, Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider.

alistairhoughton