Post-Edinburgh Interactive Festival Report

Shaggy August 22, 2008 0

Previously we have discussed the Edinburgh Interactive Festival and how our friend Kevin Williams was going to present a seminar about the amusement industry to that show and now we have the details. He displayed a number of new games to delegates at the convention, and showed off technology such as the Gundam game from Namco that uses the dome screen and Konami’s latest efforts such as Action Cop, Jubeat and DDRX. I have seen the Poker Tek game mentioned in the release (and show in the picture with Kevin there on the right) and it appears that it caught some good attention at the show. Get the full details (with more pictures) from the press release after the jump:

August 20, 2008 – London, United Kingdom – KWP Ltd., became the first amusement executive to present at the auspicious Edinburgh Interactive Festival (EIF) last week, with exclusive information of new developments in the arcade scene yet to be revealed, and a idea of the trends shaping this changing market, including hands on the latest hardware.

►The ‘Arcade Amusement Gets Wired’ EIF Seminar Presentations

To an audience of over 100 delegates, Kevin Williams – founder and director of KWP, gave an overview of the Public Space also known as the Out-of-Home interactive entertainment industry. Kevin described new developments in an industry that is usually veiled in secrecy and often mistaken as dormant.

The session included the first glimpse in Europe of the Banpresto / Namco Bandai ‘Gundam P.O.D. (Panoramic Optical Display)’ system – in the immersion technology part of the presentation, the thinking behind the POD system was revealed incorporating both immersive display technology, and a sophisticated level of network play.

Looking at Motion Capture game technology – originated in the amusement sector – the latest coin-op application was shown with the Konami Digital Entertainment’s ‘Action Cop’ offering two-player driving shooting and fighting via MoCap gauntlets. Another first for the audience was the latest in music rhythm gaming championed by the first look at ‘JUBEAT’ (an touchscreen music title) and ‘Dance Dance Revolution: X’ – the latest in the dancing stage series celebrating its Tenth Anniversary.

The EIF audience was also shown the latest imagery from the new Capcom arcade release ‘Street Fighter IV’; an example of new releases that have re-kindled an interest by players to know more about the arcade scene. Kevin attempted to widen the audiences’ knowledge of the opportunities in Public Space gaming, describing new sectors including ExerGaming – using games in fitness and exercise machines, and Casual Gaming – for the hospitality sector.

In the game feature area of the EIF event, the KWP presentation was supported by the placement of the latest amusement machine for visitors to try for themselves. UK distributor Cosmic Video Amusement kindly supplied a brand new example of arcade Casual Gaming, with a PokerTek ‘Heads-Up’ 2-player Texas hold ’em machine; gathered a good crowd of players during the event.