Gaming
Pocket Gamer Connects branches out to partner with Games Forest Club to reinforce Sustainability Awareness
The UK’s biggest global games industry conference Pocket Gamer Connects hits London this January and has announced its green initiative with GamesForest.Club innovative non-profit organisation creating awareness about nature restoration within the games industry. This project is set to change the way the games industry values sustainability. This innovative project aims to help restore nature with the power of gaming, and shine a light on the importance of sustainable business travel.
Pocket Gamer Connects, the must- attend event, is kickstarting the new year to meet exciting global game makers, developers and publishers from top international games, as well as investors, tools, service providers and platforms. The event is known to bring together and connect the most influential thought leaders in the industry.
Based in Berlin, the founders of GamesForest.Club project bring a strong background in the gaming industry, from co-founding Phoenix Games to being head of games:net Berlin-Brandenburg the founding members of the initiative have worked in the gaming industry in the past and formed this project in 2021. Games Forest is on a mission to create awareness and make the gaming industry as climate-positive as possible, with reforestation and forest protection at the heart of its projects. 52 companies have already signed up for the initiative to invest in carbon absorption via planting and protecting forests. In a short period of time, Games Forest’s community has successfully planted over 73 000 trees and protected 1.4 million square metres of forests.
To kickstart the year Jiri Kupiainen, CEO of Matchmade and ambassador of Games Forest Club launches the “10 weeks to save the games industry” social media challenge with Maria Wagner, Co-Founder of GamesForest.Club, where they will travel together around Europe to game shows and games hotspots by train to provide awareness around sustainable business travel and to find out how games industry thought leaders tackle the biggest opportunities and obstacles the industry faces today. Their trip aims to shine a light on the importance of making ethical travel choices that are sustainable and to find out what game companies are doing to be more environmentally friendly – showing that small can make a great positive impact on our environment. Pocket Gamer Connects will be the official media partner of this movement and the event will be one of their stops on this sustainable trip.
GamesForest.Club Co-Founder Maria Wagner has expressed her gratitude and hopes for what this partnership can achieve with more people on board: “We want to create a global community of leaders, who shape and benefit from a green future within the games industry. We are thrilled to be partnering with such a highly regarded company and are really looking forward to this partnership to create a bigger conversation within the games industry as to how we can all collectively make a change to restore and protect nature.”
This partnership aims to bring more awareness to the gaming community on the importance of climate change and the action each individual needs to take to protect the future of our our planet. Pocket Gamer Connects London is taking to the stage next week on the 23rd and 24th of January and is expected to be the biggest one yet, with more than 2,000 attendees globally. PGC London 2023 will host more than 900 leading companies in technology and mobile games with names such as Meta, Google, Sony Pictures and Disney
Chris James, CEO of Steel Media, expressed his excitement about this partnership. “It’s great to be involved in this project. We are really proud of being the conference that unites the international gaming community, and that does also come with a responsibility. We aim to support the environment and build an informed and supported community.”
PG Connects has established an outstanding international reputation as a must-attend conference to meet the exciting global game makers, developers and publishers- as well as some of the world’s top investors, tools providers and platforms. Bringing together the best-connected people in the industry, this event will host multiple panels and discussions, matchmaking activities for game makers, as well as networking opportunities and much more throughout the two full days.
You can register for the event and donate to the GamesForest.Club initiative. All of your contributions will help to protect forest in Peru and will be visualised in the Pocket Gamer Connects Forest.
Gaming
Midjiwan Supports Reforestation Efforts With New Elyrion Tribe Skin In The Battle Of Polytopia
Midjiwan, the award-winning independent studio behind The Battle of Polytopia, is celebrating Elyrion (∑∫ỹriȱŋ) Tribe Week with a brand-new Midnight (₼idŋighţ) skin and donations to support reforestation.
Tapping into the Elyrion Tribe’s nature magic abilities, every purchase of an Elyrion item in the game will plant one real-world tree from April 22-28 2024. Midjiwan has teamed up with The Canopy Project, an organisation that works with global partners to reforest areas in urgent need of rehabilitation, combining The Battle Of Polytopia’s themes with a desire to make real change in the world. Previous years of Elyrion Tribe Week have resulted in the planting of over 12,000 trees.
The Elyrion Tribe is a mysterious group of elves, dedicated to defending their woodland home with their unique magic and connection with nature. Players using the Elyrion tribe have the ability to enchant animals into Polytaurs and summon powerful Fire Dragons.
Christian Lövstedt, General Manager at Midjiwan, commented:
“This is a hugely exciting partnership, allowing players to support the planet and contribute to reforestation whilst also accessing brilliant new content to use in The Battle Of Polytopia.”
Alongside donating to The Canopy Project, The Battle Of Polytopia also boasts a brand-new skin for the Elyrion Tribe! The Midnight skin allows players to create graves, build crypts, and summon demons in dark forests, all in service of the mysterious Shard of D’Naeh.
The Midnight skin re-skins the entire Elyrion Tribe as the Midnight Cult. Everything the Elyrion Tribe is all about – nature, enchantment, and sanctuary – is turned on its head, corrupted into a dark, twisted dystopia of itself.
Midjiwan has already invested €250,000 in solar power projects in rural areas around Africa, and other charitable projects. The studio continues to seek opportunities to combine its in-game creativity with real-world benefits. The Battle of Polytopia is available on Nintendo Switch, the App Store, Google Play, PC, and Tesla cars.
Gaming
Digital Asset Horse Racing Game Stables Appoints Lebnan Nader CEO And Unveils International Expansion Plan
Stables, the Paris-based Web3 Equestrian Fantasy Game, has appointed venture capital veteran Lebnan Nader as Chief Executive Officer.
Lebnan Nader, who had founded and run several gaming and technology businesses, will oversee an international expansion as Stables seeks to add horses and attract owners from outside its French home market.
Launched in January 2023, Stables was born from an ambitious project funded by PMU, the European leader and number 3 worldwide in horse betting, alongside the startup studio 321. The game is designed to bring the excitement of horse racing into the digital realm by combining real data from actual racehorses with an online Web3 gaming experience where horses are represented as tradable non-fungible tokens.
“Stables brings together two of my favorite domains, video gaming and horse racing. Two sectors I’ve been involved in for the past 12 years. The game’s ambitions are high, and that’s what convinced me,” said Lebnan Nader, CEO of Stables. “The teams have done a tremendous job, and we will continue to develop the game, but my priority will be our community, as they are our greatest strength.”
A graduate of HEC Paris with nearly 20 years experience in strategy, product development, and market positioning in the digital sector, Lebnan co-founded an internationally acclaimed video and VR gaming studio, and also co-founded a software company for lottery and betting operators.
PMU’s initial gamble to reach a new audience has paid off as Stables now boasts a community of several thousand engaged players, aged 25 to 40 on average. The community is currently composed of 70% French players and 30% from the rest of the world.
The Stables teams are now expanding the gaming experience by adding new features that will allow any player, even without owning NFTs, to be able to explore Stables for free. A seasonal horse racing system with an in-game leaderboard will be introduced, as well as “The Paddock Gazette,” a feature allowing the analysis of all NFT data and comparing their performances.
The ability to interact with other players and access numerous new horses are among the features currently in development.
“In 2023, Stables succeeded in realizing PMU’s bold vision of diversifying the world of horse racing into Web3 and becoming today’s reference in equestrian fantasy gaming. Contributing alongside its historic partners to the financial support for an accelerated development of Stables represents for the Tezos Foundation a natural progression to the adoption of Tezos. Among other things, the Tezos Foundation always listens to the needs of management teams and economically engages in projects that have adopted its blockchain to be an active participant in their growth stages,” says Jean-Frédéric Mognetti, Executive Director of the Tezos Foundation.
“Convinced of the relevance of the project, it seemed important to involve new investors. We enthusiastically welcome the financial support of the Tezos Foundation, which strengthens a proven technical collaboration that the project has benefited from since its inception,” comments Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet, CEO of PMU.
Gaming
Speechless Announces Hybrid License, Giving Actors Greater Control Over Their AI-Generated Voices
New platform will enable voice actors to gain commission on their AI-generated counterparts while also streamlining the development process for studios
Today, Speechless, the voice actor database and asset tool for the games industry, has announced its new Hybrid AI License, combining real voice talent and generative artificial intelligence (AI). This new license will enable game developers to utilize all aspects of modern voice-over production while providing more equitable opportunities for the actors themselves. With the current games landscape increasingly experimenting with the potential of AI, Speechless is offering a solution that takes a greater ethical approach to this technology.
The first complete management system for the games industry, Speechless’ Hybrid AI License easily allows developers to use the full range of voice-over options in one place; from text-to-speech, speech-to-speech and conventional voice recording. Unlike other text-to-speech providers, Speechless’ integrated approach allows developers to access the voice actors behind the AI-generated, text-to-speech options. This license not only enables developers to gain greater creative control over voice production but also gives actors control over their AI-generated voice.
Voice actors will benefit from this license by having their AI-generated voice earn a commission when it is licensed by developers. In addition, developers can utilize text-to-speech options to refine their scripts before bringing on the voice actor for the full recording. Developers can then adjust the voice actor’s recording with its AI counterpart at the later stages of development, removing the need for reshoots and allowing voice actors to move on to new projects.
The potential of Speechless’ License also enables a greater depth of content for side characters and NPCs and streamlines localization in new markets while keeping voice talent involved. With the rise of generative AI in game development, Speechless is establishing the best practice for utilizing the advantages of this technology without excluding the creative talent of voice actors.
This new license is available immediately and follows Speechless’ recent collaboration with audio middleware leader Audiokinetic Wwise.
“We can’t ignore the potential AI has for the games industry but we need to approach this technology ethically; that’s what we aim to achieve when it comes to voice-acting,” the Chief Executive Officer for Speechless, Peo Drangert (pictured), said. “By offering a hybrid license, developers can streamline their processes and experiment with different voice actors at a lower cost. At the same time, voice actors are compensated for their work and the work of their AI-generated voice, have greater opportunities to collaborate with studios and can work more flexibly. AI will continue to grow in the games sector, so we must use it responsibly to ensure a fairer industry.”
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