BERLIN, November 3, 2020 - The first digital edition of the business and development platform gamesweekberlin PRO X drew to a successful close last Friday. Game fans, game developers and publishers met on such platforms as Twitch, Discord and Zoom over the course of three days. The organisers reported considerable interest in using their online channels on the three conference days. Of particular note are the 200,000 hits on Twitch.tv/gamesweekberlin, with more than 6,000 simultaneous viewers. With a development continuing like this, the event series is reaching towards the magic number of a million hits as the live streaming channel has already reached more than 500,000 professionals and fans until today. gamesweekberlin and many of its events are supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
"We are pleased gamesweekberlin PRO X also managed to bring the international game developer community together online," says Michael Liebe, Head of gamesweekberlin and CEO of Booster Space. "Thanks to the team's great efforts with our partners at our side, we not only succeeded in rethinking existing formats and introducing exciting features, but even added new sub-events to gamesweekberlin PRO X. The participation in the individual lectures and workshops via video conferencing – something that has now become a daily routine for most of us – wasn't the only thing that went well. The integration of Discord as a virtual conference lobby was also an enrichment, and the same goes for the coordination of business meetings with MeetToMatch. We set new records with over 100,000 views on the second conference day alone.“
gamesweekberlin opened on Wednesday with the Opening Breakfast, moderated by Melek Balgün with an international keynote by Rami Ismail, talks by Jens Hilgers (BITKRAFT), Chris Hana and Odile Limpach, as well as political speeches by Dorothee Bär, Minister of State for Digital Affairs, Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin, and Lars Klingbeil, Secretary General of the SPD. This was followed later that day and on the next two days by the programme of the QUO VADIS game development & business conference including PRO X: Tabletop Games Focus and Career Day, the Womenize! Games & Tech talent and recruitment platform, the GERMAN ESPORTS SUMMIT, the PRO X: Dev Booster and the Matchmaking Dinner.
The wide range of topics at QUO VADIS gave an insight into how games are developed and financed. Current issues such as remote team management, player retention, crowdfunding or procedural game design were discussed in lively webinars and workshops. There was also plenty of people talking, making comments and, of course, playing games on gamesweekberlin's Twitch channel. One of the most popular events was the panel with the "games philosophers" Richard Bartle, Jesper Juul and Sebastian Möring where they discussed the question of whether game developers aren't in fact rather god-like after all.
On Friday afternoon, an expert jury and the audience declared the lively indie game "You Suck at Parking" by Happy Vulcano from Belgium the winner at the end of the live-streamed final of the PRO X: Dev Booster online pitching format which had first been held in June. The final was broadcast live on Twitch at www.twitch.tv/gamesweekberlin. The final elimination round was moderated by members of the developer and streamer collective Die Indiestrolche.
The 6th edition of the Womenize! Games & Tech talent and recruiting platform was dedicated to the growing importance of soft skills, crowdfunding & sustainability as well as the question of how serious games can support and complement sensitive issues such as sexual trauma, PTSD or mental health. Natasha Skult, IGDA Finland and founder and CEO MiTale Ltd: "This year's edition of Womenize was absolutely fantastic with very moving topics. I particularly liked the keynote by Drussila Hollanda-Grönberg from Supercell, which was followed by a roundtable discussion with numerous professionals from the industry - a truly enriching event. Congratulations to the organizers.“
The two-day GERMAN ESPORTS SUMMIT - GES20 was held under the motto of "E-Sport & Sustainability". Discussion also centred here on the question of how to preserve what has been achieved so far and what challenges e-sports will face in the future - both economically and socially.
At the same time, there wasn't any need to go without networking and parties. On Thursday, games fans competed against one another in an online version of the popular pub quiz "Seitenquiz" and tested their gaming knowledge. And the gamesweekberlin came to a raucous and earsplitting finale with LOUD X, a live concert of three heavy metal bands streamed on Twitch.
A big thank you from gamesweekberlin to all the partners, sponsors and helpers, without whom we would not have been able to organise such a successful and varied programme.
The next edition is scheduled for autumn 2021, but the date and format for gamesweekberlin 2021 have not yet been finalised due to the current situation .
All information at: www.gamesweekberlin.com
Press contact:
SteinbrennerMüller Kommunikation
Dr. Kathrin Steinbrenner
E-Mail: mail@steinbrennermueller.de
Telefon: 030 47372191
The gamesweekberlin 2020 partner & sponsors:
Funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Sponsors of the gamesweekberlin PRO X: Kickstarter, Riot Berlin, Wooga, xsolla, Ubisoft Berlin, InnoGames, Xbox, SAE Institute, Wargaming Mobile, Brehm v. Moers, E-Sport Hub Sachsen-Anhalt, game Verband, game esports, AVM, Games Bavaria, SCILL Play, Tencent Cloud, GameFairy, Myer’s Hotel, Eventbrite
Partner events: Opening Breakfast, QUO VADIS - game development & business conference, Womenize! Games & Tech, German Esports Summit, Matchmaking (Dinner)*, LOUD X
Event partner and organiser: Booster Space, MeetToMatch, FACTORY-C, Freaks 4U Gaming, Twitch, A MAZE, IGDA Finland, Cozydunes
Networking partner: games:net berlinbrandenburg, Institut Francais Deutschland, Digital Dragons, Mediennetzwerk NRW, Film Festival Cologne, GIC - Games Industry Conference, Ludicious, 80.lv, PANDA, Dutch Game Garden, She Works!, devcom, GDBAY, Games & XR Mitteldeutschland, Crazy Labs, DevGAMM!, Game Connection Europe, Israel Mobile Summit, Reboot, Fem Devs Meetup, Women in Games
Official ticketing partner: Eventbrite