SOE prez to headline ION 2008
The 2008 ION Game Conference in Seattle, WA appears to have gained it's crown jewel, with the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley, one of the key members of the original Everquest team, will be delivering the conference keynote. His speech will reportedly focus on the achievements of Sony Online Entertainment, and the keynote will serve as a springboard for him to talk at length about SOE's exciting new property -- The Agency. Normally I'd make some snarky remark about a company President trying to sell his game at a conference populated by the competition, but after having poured over our preview of the game from CES, I have to concede that I'm just happy we'll get to hear more about the game at length.
ION, known formerly referred to by the considerably less cool sounding acronym OGDC, is a game development conference aimed at networking the increasingly international community of online game developers. Like the more generalist Game Developer's Conference, ION has lots of panels, expo space, speakers, and network opportunities aimed specifically at the guys and gals who make our favorite MMOs. Don't wait around for notes from the keynote though -- the conference isn't until the second week of May. We'll keep you posted though.
