Mar. 17 - The world of video games gets "serious" in San Francisco at Game Connection America, the industry's most important event in the world along with the European edition of the event, held in Paris December 3 -5. The event, which takes place from today until March 19 at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, sees the participation of ICE – the Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies, in collaboration with AESVI, the trade association representing the video game industry in Italy. The two inaugurated today an area dedicated to the excellence of Italian game development. The fair is a B2B point of reference for game developers around the world, as evidenced by last yea’s significant numbers: 1,640 participants from over 56 countries, 7,642 interviews arranged by the Application Meeting, 206 exhibitors and 240 certified buyers. In particular, Italy has 11 development companies joining forces under the brand "Games in Italy," which will give them the opportunity to showcase their technical and creative skills to more than 1,500 representatives of 500 companies from more than 50 countries, including potential publishers, customers and suppliers. The Italian companies participating under the ICE-AESVI umbrella are 93 Steps, Bad Seed Entertainment, Digital Tales, E-Ludo Interactive, Foofa Studios, Forge Reply, Interactive Project, Just Funny Games, Mangatar, Ticonblu, Tiny Bull Studios. Of these, five are innovative start-ups (Bad Seed Entertainment, Interactive Project, Just Funny Games, Mangatar, Tiny Bull Studios).

 

AESVI

AESVI (the Italian Videogame Developers and Publishers Association) is the trade association representing the video games and console manufacturers, publishers and game developers industry in Italy. The association was founded in 2001 by a group of publishers to "represent, promote and protect the collective interests of the sector." At the end of 2003, it welcomed the three largest manufacturers of video game hardware: Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo and Microsoft, giving the Association a complete representation of the target market. At the international level, since 2002 AESVI adheres to the European Association ISFE (Interactive Software Federation of Europe), based in Brussels. Since 2005, AESVI is a member of the ISFE Board of Directors. Since 2010, it is also an associate member of Confindustria Italian Culture, the Federation for Italy’s cultural industry.