Taking place during the Edinburgh Festival, the conference will present executives from key industry players including SCEE boss Ray Maguire, whose talk will focus on Sony's commitment to 3D gaming, and Microsoft's Jerry Johnson, General Manager of Xbox Live Studios in Europe, who will talk on Xbox Live's future role in transforming entertainment. Eidos life president Ian Livingstone will be chairing a discussion on the idea of a future without publishers.
Other speakers set to appear include Simon Nelson, the BBC's controller of portfolio and media, who, following the corporation's recent release of the first two episodes of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, will outline his belief that the BBC must become more involved in gaming, and Margaret Robertson, ex-editor of Edge, who will be drawing on her experience as a consultant and as development director for interactive arts company Hide&Seek in a talk focussing on how games designers can maximise the positive impacts of their products on the lives of users.
Nicholas Lovell, industry adviser and author of How To Publish A Game, will also be talking on the impact of free-to-play business models on the game industry, while analyst Paul Heydon will examine the ways in which 'disruptive' companies are making the money in the fast-changing sector. Michael Acton Smith of Mind Candy, the creator of popular children's webgame Moshi Monsters, will be giving a talk on how the company dealt with its own success, and what it learned as its userbase expanded to over 25 million registered users.
Alongside the conference is a series of screenings and talks from gamemakers, including Creative Assembly’s Mike Simpson on the Total War series and Nick Burton from Rare showing off Kinect Sports.
Edinburgh Interactive 2010 will be held at the Edinburgh Film House on the 25th and 26th of August. A full list of speakers, and a chance to purchase tickets can be found on the festival's website.