In case you don't know Bernie he is one of the industries veterans having been CEO at Mattel, President at SEGA and EVP at Sony Playstation for the launches of PS1 & PS2 and of course that other small company Atari, who did not play much of a roll in games....
For years I have felt the presence of Bernie in my living room so I have to admit getting to meet him was a pleasure. He had tonnes of stories and in particular I loved the one about launching the PS2. He told me that they did not have game to drive sales, in the past they had a sonic and in Nintendo case they had Mario but PS2 had nothing.....until he found Crash Bandicoot. In short that game drove unit sales.
So here is a synopsis of the what people said at the event.
Less big publishers, similar to what happened in the music and film industry
Companies that run with lower costs and are quicker to market will be stronger
Episodic content will be the new way to distribute console games
The end of retail boxed games for $60 (unless of course you do it well like GTA)
Casual gaming will continue to grow and companies with original I.P will become stronger
MMO's will shift to online
Funding is becoming harder to get, so you better make it last as there may not be a second round
Make sure you make a good game "there is a lot of crap out there" Is it fun??
Microtransactions will become a standard in the US, but so far many companies have just shoehorned the model in and its not quite right yet.
Advertising in games will grow and be delivered in context for greatest impact
I-phone games catalog is easy to access and a good distribution channel
The likes of Kongregate will help find the next great talent
You really need to know your market and understand your consumers
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