Interactive Games Festival

The Edinburgh Interactive Games Festival is on today and tomorrow at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. I attended today.

It was interesting to listen to the presentations, which included a keynote from the President of Electronic Arts. I noted several interesting statistics... the games business is bigger that the music business; that 40% of gamers are female; and that one in four gamers are over 50 years old.

A recurring theme was the rise of social gaming, particularly on mobile platforms such as smartphones. Other predicted growth areas included role paying and games that have an impact outside of the game itself (such as Wii fitness games). Some of the demonstrations were very impressive including one that involved a virtual pet that was incredibly life-like. It looks like the next few years will be very exciting.

There are pointers here for the current qualification developments in this area, which I will feedback to the respective teams.