Ichiro Otobe, chief strategist of Square Enix, will be delivering the keynote at this year's Serious Games Summit GDC in San Francisco.

Otobe's speech, entitled Serious Games Squared, will detail Square's entry into the serious games sector and the company's effort to balance commercial game development with serious game development.

"I am honored and excited to deliver the opening keynote at the Serious Games Summit GDC," said Otobe. "The serious games market represents a new outlet for our skills as a game developer, and it means that we will be serving totally different customers. As such, there are many different kinds of hurdles that must be cleared in order for it to offer meaningful opportunities. I plan to speak about Square Enix's approach to these challenges, and hopefully provide both business and design inspiration for everyone interested in the uses of games beyond entertainment."

I've been hearing more and more lately that GDC is quickly becoming the new E3. I hope that means in a good way not a bad one. Brian Crecente

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SQUARE ENIX'S ICHIRO OTOBE TO PRESENT OPENING KEYNOTE

AT THE SERIOUS GAMES SUMMIT GDC 2007

The Company's Chief Strategist Discusses New Opportunities

in the Serious Games Sector

SAN FRANCISCO - Jan. 15, 2007 - CMP's Game Group today announced Ichiro Otobe,

chief strategist of Square Enix Co., Ltd., will serve as the opening keynote

for its Serious Games Summit GDC (SGS GDC) taking place March 5-6 at the Moscone

Convention Center North in San Francisco. Otobe's address, titled "Serious Games

Squared," will detail the efforts, strategies, and risks that went into Square

Enix's entry in the serious games sector. Otobe will also discuss the company's

approach to reconcile commercial entertainment economics with the realities,

challenges, and opportunities of the serious games industry. The session will

also feature demos of prototype games and titles currently under development.

"I am honored and excited to deliver the opening keynote at the Serious Games

Summit GDC," said Otobe. "The serious games market represents a new outlet for

our skills as a game developer, and it means that we will be serving totally

different customers. As such, there are many different kinds of hurdles that

must be cleared in order for it to offer meaningful opportunities. I plan to

speak about Square Enix's approach to these challenges, and hopefully provide

both business and design inspiration for everyone interested in the uses of games

beyond entertainment."

"We are thrilled to make this announcement. This keynote signifies the growing

impact serious games can have not only outside of games but within the games

industry - even for major companies like Square Enix," said Ben Sawyer, co-founder,

Digitalmill, and SGS GDC content chair. "We have constantly taken the approach

that serious games gets its core strength from the great work arising from our

best industry resources. This year's SGS GDC will speak to this and we look

forward to the industry-wide reflection and innovation which will undoubtedly

spring from the Summit and this address in particular."

SGS GDC offers advanced seminars on design, production, implementation and assessment

issues related to serious games, as well as case studies on game-based solutions

and simulations used within non-entertainment industries. Attendees are invited

to the annual SGS GDC Reception that will be held March 5 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

that provides them the opportunity to network with game developers and industry

professionals. The SGS GDC speaker line-up, full session descriptions, and registration

are now available online at . Press registration is also

currently open for the Summit and Game Developers Conference, at www.gdconf.com

.

More than 12,500 game industry professionals will convene during GDC, the world's

largest games industry-only event dedicated to the advancement of resources,

tools and technologies used to create interactive entertainment. The GDC features

more than 300 lectures, panels, tutorials and round-table discussions on a comprehensive

selection of game development topics taught by leading industry experts.