Game Connection 2004 : Start again ! The annual business convention gathering video game developers and publishers all over the world is back again -December 6th to 8th 2004-

Lyon, July 13th 2004- The fourth edition of Game Connection, a business convention welcoming developers and publishers and creating the best possible atmosphere for doing business, will take place in Lyon, France from the 6th to the 8th of December 2004. This year, Game Connection is strengthening its international dimension by welcoming developers from all over the world (and not only from Europe as for the previous editions) and will bring together 80 of the best developers and 70 of the biggest publishers in the world .

With a number of participants that has tripled in three years, Game Connection has confirmed its increasing success by bringing together 75 development studios and 60 of the main publishers in the world during the last edition in November 2004.

“Since its first edition in 2001, Game Connection has won acclaim and has become one of the most important business meetings for the European and world video game industry. With its innovative and well-defined objective of allowing video game professionals to get and stay in touch in a field where it is very difficult to establish business contacts, Game Connection has proved its worth and attracted an increasing numbers of professionals. Game Connection 2004 will follow this trend and be conducive to business, with talks on the evolution of the video game market for the coming two years” says Pierre Carde, Director of Lyon Game.

Game Connection On Line, the first online marketplace for the video game industry, is available for companies taking part in the Game Connection 2004 to get ready for business. It is already possible to register on the website www.game-connection.com : those who register before 20th August will be granted an exceptional 15% discount on the price of Game Connection 2004.

London: a foretaste of Game Connection…

From August 31st to September 5th, London is the place to be for the video game industry. The Game Connection team will be there, side by side with all the other professionals of the video game industry.

“As for the E3 in Los Angeles last May, the Game Connection On Line meeting system will be available for firms going to London. They will be able to meet and communicate with each other and take advantage of the presence of the main actors of the industry. Enlarging the number and the size of our actions, facilitating the integration of firms in our network will perpetuate and confirm the international dimension of the Game Connection which has no equivalent in the video game industry. The meeting system will also be available in Japan during the Tokyo Game Show at the end of September”.

The Game Connection On Line meeting system (www.game-connection.com) will be accessible from the last week of July for firms going to London to enable them to organize their professional meetings.

> About Lyon Game (www.lyongame.com)

Founded in 2000, Lyon Game is the largest non-profit professional organization in Europe bringing together companies in the French videogames industry. Lyon Game’s role is to help these companies develop their business and give them effective tools to promote their know-how at the regional, national and international levels.

Lyon Game organizes a number of concrete actions and offers various services such as:

– Game Connection, a business convention gathering all the professionals in the industry,

– Game Connection Online, a permanent Online Marketplace where companies can keep in touch with the industry,

– Gamagora, which offers in-house professional training adapted to companies’ needs, through well-known training institutions, helps companies and their employees to acquire specific, cutting-edge skills and to get an overview of competences and jobs that will be essential in the future,

– Advice on financing – such as how to raise funds or get subsidies – and in finding solutions to diversify a company’s activities,

– Gathering and swapping technology between game development studios and building partnerships with research laboratories.

As part of this initiative, Lyon Game also supports companies at international trade shows, including GDC in San Jose, E3 in Los Angeles and TGS in Tokyo.

Lyon Game brings together more than 50 companies in the videogames industry, such as Widescreen Games, Krysalide, Nobilis, Atari, Eden Games, Etranges Libellules, Ubi Soft and Eugen Systems to name but a few.

> About the Game Connection (www.game-connection.com)

Organized by Lyon Game in Lyon for the third consecutive year, Game Connection is a business convention for creation and financing in the videogames industry.

Game Connection’s aim is to help developers and publishers to meet up at the same place and time, allowing developers to present their projects, to meet publishers looking for original products or to obtain a license within a professional, confidential framework.

Following the success of the convention’s 2002 edition, which led to the signing of contracts worth more than euros10 million, Game Connection 2003 brought together 75 development studios (including Argonaut, Darkworks, Dôki Denki, Etranges Libellules, Eutechnyx, Guérilla Games, Nikitova Games, Rébellion, Playstos, Visse Interactive, WideScreen Games and others) and 36 publishers (including Activision, Atari, Codemasters, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Namco, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Take 2 and Ubisoft among others) for more than 2,200 business meetings.

As the last three editions in Lyon met a growing success each year, Game Connection “hit the road” for the first time this year and was present at the Game Developer Conference in San Jose. 55 developers and 32 publishers registered and then met on March 22nd & 23rd during more than 600 one-to-one meetings. This particular edition was very important, as it was the first outside France.
The Game Connection concept will now be adapted to most of the events in the videogames industry.

Press Contacts

ACTUS
Julie Barbaras
Phone: 33 4 90 15 43 34 / + 33 6 77 02 15 41
E-mail: jbarbaras@actus.fr

LYON GAME
Claire Batissat
Phone: 33 4 37 64 69 53
E-mail: cbatissat@lyongame.com

LYON GAME
Villa créatis / 2, rue des mûriers – CP 601 – 69 258 Lyon cedex 09 – Tel : 04 37 64 69 53 – Fax : 04 26 68 91 56
Site: www.lyongame.com – E-mail: info@lyongame.com
Association loi 1901 déclarée le 24/06/96 à la Préfecture du Rhône sous le N° 0691039256 – Siret 419 758 529 00020