GDC Austin Keynotes

From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts...It's a Whole New MMO World

In MMO development, companies can slip into habitual processes derived from targeting the same audience over and over. This session will explore Sony Online Entertainment's first tween/teen title, Free Realms, including market research, focus testing, business intelligence, online and retail distribution, and customer acquisition and retention strategies. Attendees will learn about the challenges and lessons learned when creating a full-blown MMO for kids together with a ground-breaking new business model; and how developers can re-educate their teams to move from stagnant and dated MMO design toward mass market success.

Learn more about John Smedley.

The Universe of World of Warcraft

Thursday, September 17, 9:30 - 10:30am
Design and implementation is only part of the process in running a massively multiplayer game. Maintaining the player base and achieving sustained growth requires a collective and consistent effort from numerous departments beyond the development team. This discussion will offer an in-depth look at the operational complexities of running a large-scale MMO, including some specific lessons Blizzard Entertainment has learned with World of Warcraft.

Learn more about Frank Pearce and J. Allen Brack.

A New Social Era for Games: How Your Friends Are Changing the Way the World Plays Games

Friday, September 18th, 9:30-10:30am
Playfish shares the secret formula behind the innovative social games it has created which are attracting tens of millions of players every month. This session will describe the tectonic shift currently transforming the game industry and how it affects distribution and monetization. Learn ways to harness social emotions to drive catalog-free distribution, how to profitably run high-quality free game services, and gain insight on why your friends are the key to succeeding in this new social era.

Learn more about Sebastien de Halleux.

J. ALLEN BRACK
Production Director
Blizzard Entertainment

As the production director on World of Warcraft®, J. Allen Brack is responsible for coordinating the efforts of the game’s development team as it creates new content to keep the experience fresh and exciting. This involves overseeing all aspects of the project and managing the production of patches and expansions from initial conception through release.

Brack started at Blizzard Entertainment® in January 2006 as a senior producer in charge of content, playing a major role in the creation of new zones, dungeons, and quests for World of Warcraft’s first expansion pack,The Burning Crusade®. Prior to joining Blizzard, he worked at Origin Systems, Inc. on the Wing Commander® franchise and then at Sony Online Entertainment LLC on Star Wars Galaxies®.

In his spare time, Brack enjoys playing a wide variety of games, practicing martial arts, and reading.

SEBASTIEN DE HALLEUX
COO & Co-Founder
Playfish

Sebastien de Halleux (pronounced deh alloew) is chief operating officer and co-founder of Playfish, one of the largest and fastest growing social games companies.  Sebastien leads operations in Playfish's San Francisco office where he drives distribution, monetization and business development, as well as partnerships with Facebook, Google, Apple and MySpace.  

Prior to Playfish, Sebastien was part of the team that incubated Nokia Ad Service, a business unit aimed at monetizing mobile traffic across Nokia's 850 million mobile devices worldwide.  

Sebastien also was an early team member of Macrospace Ltd., a company which merged with Sorrent Inc. to become Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU), where he was instrumental in building the sales and marketing functions of the organization.  He later expanded Glu's distribution footprint in Europe, forged key partnerships with network operators Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange, and reorganized the company's financial planning and sales operations in preparation for its IPO on NASDAQ.  

Sebastien holds a Master's in Civil Engineering with honors from Imperial College London.  He has resided in Brussels, Bangkok and London, and presently lives in San Francisco. 

FRANK PEARCE
Co-Founder & Executive Vice President of Product Development
Blizzard Entertainment

As Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.’s executive vice president of product development, Frank Pearce plays a critical role in the development of all Blizzard Entertainment® titles. This involves coordinating the work of multiple teams in order to ensure that every project maintains the same polish and quality that mark all Blizzard Entertainment games.

Pearce takes an active role in the ongoing development of World of Warcraft® as the current executive producer, and he recently oversaw the development of World of Warcraft’s first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade®, and its second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King™. Before this, he directed the development process of Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos™ and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne™. Currently, Pearce is coordinating the development of the highly-anticipated StarCraft® II.

Since cofounding Blizzard Entertainment with Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime in 1991, Pearce has been deeply involved in the company’s projects. Games he has worked on include Amiga ports of various licensed titles, as well as The Lost Vikings™, Blackthorne™, Justice League Task Force™, and The Lost Vikings II for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness™, Diablo®, StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood War™, and Diablo II for the PC, among others.

Pearce holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and engineering from the University of California in Los Angeles.

JOHN SMEDLEY
President
SOE

As President of Sony Online Entertainment LLC, John Smedley oversees the company’s overall vision and growth. He has more than a decade of experience in the interactive entertainment industry, including positions with ATG, Knight Technologies and five years with Sony Online Entertainment as Director of Development. 

Smedley, aka “Smed,” left college after two years to pursue his video game passion full time. He was instrumental in the creation and development of the original, groundbreaking EverQuest® (EQ), and was co-founder of Verant Interactive Inc., which became Sony Online Entertainment after it was purchased by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.  In April 2008, SOE transitioned to Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) in a strategic move to closely align itself with the strong growth of the worldwide online gaming market.

Under Smedley’s visionary leadership, SOE has grown from a small developer with a single online PC game to an industry leader with millions of subscribers and multiple titles published on PC, PlayStation®, PSP, wireless and handheld platforms.

Smedley is an avid gamer who enjoys first-person shooters and playing acoustic guitar during his personal time.