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Games fans are gearing up for the inaugural Dublin Games Summit, which will take place on July 19th.
The event has signed up a number of sponsors, including Facebook, esports firm ESL, security company Edgescan, and product and interaction design agency Design Partners, while games firms Square Enix, EA and Havok will also take part.
The event, which is being held in the Alex Hotel, will have 35 speakers taking part in 21 talks. Among the topics up for discussion are diversity in gaming, the growing field of esports and games development.
Facebook will open the session in the Future of Gaming and Diversity room, which will share some of the social media platform's efforts and experiences in encouraging diversity in the industry. Square Enix's head of production Ed Perkins will speak about converting top games titles to mobile free to play games.
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Major player
The Game Development and Engineering Room will feature a talk by Steve Collins, the co-founder of Havok, on his time at the games technology firm and how it grew into a major player in the industry. The company's technology has been used in games such as Half Life 2 and Fallout 3, and was bought by Intel in 2007 before being acquired by Microsoft in 2015.
Developers from Irish games group IMIRT, Global Game Jam, Travis George, Matheson Macault and EA will also take to the stage throughout the day. "Facebook is committed to supporting diversity initiatives in games and encouraging people from minority and diverse communities to lean in to the industry and into leadership positions," said Rick Kelley, vice president of global gaming at Facebook.
“We are looking forward to sharing some inspiring stories and demonstrating Facebook’s commitment to transform the gaming industry for the better.”
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