Game On Education Event - The End of Play
Posted by Ben on Tuesday, August 20 2002

The End of Play
Saturday 7 September 2002
1pm - 2.15pm
Cinema 2, Level 4, Barbican Centre

To mark the end of Barbican Gallery's Game On exhibition, which closes on 15 September, this event explores the future of computer games and their continuing role in society, and examines how new technologies will effect the way in which we play games.

Chaired by exhibition guest curator Lucien King.

Speakers are Peter Molyneux, Managing Director of Lionhead Studios; David Braben, Founder of Frontier Development Ltd.; and Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports Interactive.

Peter Molyneux is one of the best-known names in the international world of computer games. During his 15-year career, he has worked on numerous top selling computer games that have attracted immense critical acclaim and which cumulatively have sold in excess of 10 million copies.

His career in game development began in 1987 with the formation of Bullfrog Productions and the creation of the game Populous, a massive worldwide hit for the company. After selling the prosperous Bullfrog to Californian leisure giant Electronic Arts, in 1997 Peter formed "Lionhead Studios". The game Black & White attracted a huge amount of media attention throughout its development and was voted Game of Show at E3 2000.

Peter Molyneux is recognised as one of the computer games industry's most articulate and eloquent speakers on the subject of the development of computer games. He is regarded as the games industry's major spokesperson and in this capacity has been featured in most national newspapers.

Miles Jacobson is the Managing Director of Sports Interactive, the developers of Championship Manager. He was originally an A&R man for Food Records and, later, Polygram/Island Music. It was during this time that he got involved with Sports Interactive, becoming their business advisor on a part time basis, and discovered the world of games soundtracks, becoming music supervisor on Gran Turismo.

Miles left Polygram/Island Music (now Universal) to form a record label, publishing company and games soundtrack company but soon accepted an offer from the Collyer brothers to run Sports Interactive while they moved away from the UK.

Miles' 12 years of work has seen over 10 million record sales, 30 games soundtracks and a turnover rise at Sports Interactive from £143k per annum to over £3m per annum. He was a finalist at this year's London Region "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards for his work with the BAFTA award-winning development studio.

David Braben is the founder of Frontier Developments. Based in Cambridge, it is one of the games industry's leading independent developers. Games are licensed via a number of top publishers and are currently developing for PS2, GameCube, Xbox and PC. Frontier Developments have a proven reputation for original game design and commercial success, use innovative technical and artistic approaches on all leading-edge gaming platforms.

Lucien King has wide experience of videogames. Most recently he worked for Rockstar Games, identifying and developing new talent. Before this he worked in the gaming division of German publisher Bertelsmann. Lucien King, who as Guest Curator of the exhibition worked alongside the Barbican Gallery's curator, Conrad Bodman, conceived the Game On exhibition.

For further information please contact Lucy Chant, 020 7638 5403, lchant@barbican.org.uk

For further information on Game On please contact Lisa Collins, 020 7382 7169, lcollins@barbican.org.uk