The recent MIT Enterprise Forum ‘Interactive Entertainment SIG’ event was another example of a side benefit of doing interim CEO / COO assignments – when each assignment is over I get time to ‘network’ at events like this (or the recent MIT / Polaris Venture event.)
This particular SIG is the brainchild of Michael Cavaretta member of the business-only law firm Morse Barnes-Brown Pendleton. Last summer The Boston Globe’s Hiawatha Bray wrote about how Boston has emerged as a video gaming hub, challenging similar regional hubs in Seattle and Austin. In his work, Michael sees many of the deals – both investment deals and development / publishing deals – being made by local game companies. Since the Boston-based game industry has historically operated in stealth mode, Michael formed this SIG as a way to promote the success of these local companies.
This meeting’s subject ‘Getting Started and Succeeding’ was addressed by a stellar panel of successful local game company CEOs including:…Jeff Anderson, Game Nirvana; Hank Howie, President, Blue Fang Games; and Omar Khudari, former CEO, Papyrus Design Group (and my boss at my last gig at Cecropia.) Game industry guru Rob Sebastian, CEO & Key Operating Partner, Ghost House Digital Studios flew in from LA and did a great job as moderator. Zeemote sponsored the night, providing plenty of food and drink as well has hands-on demonstrations of the world’s first compact wireless thumbstick for mobile gaming.
The good news for the audience was that we learned the details of how these folks raised money to start their successful ventures. The bad news was that – given the tremendous amount of consolidation that has happened in the industry, as well as the tremendous increase in the cost of developing a single game – the ability to raise funding today is a far more difficult challenge.
