The Business of Gaming | REACH Games Event Recap
The gaming industry has changed since the days of Atari and Odyssey. Mobile and new generation consoles are being adopted at an astounding rate, and all the while gaming has become an increasing social outlet, and that’s why there are so games business now a days as for example this Family Fun In Portland Oregon escape room where you can go and play with your family.
On October 24th, the quarterly event series, REACH, presented as a collaboration between TechZulu and GadgetReview, took place. The purpose of REACH is to explore, educate, and evaluate the future of tech, as well as experience new gadgets first hand. The night’s events began with a gaming panel, followed by mixer that included food and drink, gadget demos, as well as Twitter raffle that included a vast selection of prizes that amounted to more than $6,000 in value.
Guests arrived at 7pm. And before the event’s one hour panel kicked off at 7:30 PM, many of the attendees were able to grab a cocktail from the bar and enjoy delicious, complimentary tacos from the Calbi food truck,. But not before passing by the all new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, which was lit up and ready for center stage photography.
Inside Sony had a “booth” showing off their latest Vaio products for people to test and preview. Verizon Wireless displayed a slew of new innovative technologies such as the VGO Robotic Telepresence. LootCrate was also on hand, displaying their cool swag box for gamers along side their Xbox 360 gaming stations loaded with Call of Duty. Indiegogo, “the world’s funding platform”, was also in 
attendance. Lastly, over $6,000 worth of prizes were given away to those that Tweeted about the night’s event. This included: AT&T: Sony ION, HDMX Speaker, Earbuds, Sonos: Play 3, Bridge, Logitech: 2xUE Boom, 1x Logitech UE 9000 Noise-Isolating Earphones, 1x Logitech Wireless Bluetooth 9000 Headphones, Sony: Noise Canceling headphones, Seagate: Slim Hard Drive, Wireless Plus Hard Drive, Sprint: Samsung S3, Samsung Note 2, Tenqa: REMXD Headphones, Fit Bluetooth Headphones, Philips: Sonicare Diamond Clean, HUE LED Lights, Verizion FiOS Xbox 360 Kinect
But before guests could truly indulge in the mixer portion of the night, they witnessed a panel that consisted of some of gaming’s best. This included moderator Scot Rubin, founder of G4TV and NitroPod. Robin Kaminsky, founder of 1st Street Partners and former EVP of Activision Blizzard. Wilson Kriegel, President of Paltalk and former CRO of Zynga/OMGPOP. Joshua Yguado, President of SGN. And Chris Hewish, Head of Global Interactive DreamWorks 
Animation.
One of many topics that were in discussion was the new development process of games. Josh Yguado says, “For us the development cycle never stops. Typically, instead of spending two years on a game; on a mobile and social games…typical cycle is six to nine months. Once the game gets released to the public, that’s when you add developers. Because every week, every month you are adding new content, new versions to the game, tweaking levels…”
Another key topic brought into view was, “Who is the most valuable gaming demographic now?” Wilson Kriegel states, “I don’t think it is as transparent as was a decade ago. I actually think everyone is a gamer from the age of 4 years old, from your tablet users and educational games to your first generation Playstation users who are probably like 45 years old now.”
There were many more topics covered and the panel gave great insight about each questions asked. For those who want to watch the panel’s discussion checkout the video below.
Overall, REACH was a huge success thanks to the attendees and to the great panelists who delivered an excellent discussion on both the business and future of gaming. The food/beverage business mixer was also a great time for many innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors to meet new and old faces here in Silicon Beach. For those who missed out on the REACH event, there will be more in the coming months. Check out the TechZulu’s Calendar page to view all upcoming events here in LA and Silicon Beach.
Thank you for all those who attended! All of this would not have been possible without our sponsors:
GM, Indiegogo,Verizon Wireless, Sony, AT&T, Sonos, LootCrate, Sprint, Hansen’s Natural,Hubert’s Lemonade, Logitech, Tenqa, Seagate, Erica Kawamoto Hsu Photography,Monster Products, Hutch Media.
One last shout out for free tacos!
See the rest of the wonderful photos here!
