eGames Massive Hit

According to Mohammed Al Maskari, Director General, Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM) and organizer of the annual eGames conference: Electronic games are quickly finding their way into the oil industry, tourism, heritage and culture, defense, banking, healthcare, education and corporate training. It was more than evident from the seven conference panels that the potential market for games is expanding rapidly. Indeed, small and large projects in the "serious games" field are growing and savvy developers are using such new opportunities to smooth their cash flow, increase their R&D capabilities and find new customers for existing IP that might otherwise have laid dormant, added Al Maskari.

Al Maskari announced that KOM will sign a serious gaming MoU with Coventry University's Serious Gaming Institute before year end and that ties are also being developed between the Rusayl-based technology park and De Montfort University's Department of Imaging and Communication Design.

Abdullah Al Jufaili, Director, The Knowledge Mine business incubator program commented: "We're delighted to have had so many prestigious partners on board – Oman Mobile, Ericsson, Sun, Oman Economic Review, Java, MECIT, Infocomm Group, TIGA and ANGILS. Over the two-days we had speakers from Canada, UAE, Britain, Singapore, Oman and Sweden, their support helped build the event's international significance and proved invaluable in delivering an exceptional experience for delegates."

The conference challenged the preconceptions that electronic games are aimed purely at the teen market. "Today, gaming isn’t just about entertainment and children it’s about education and training. It’s about using games to help people learn about managing money, preparing emergency services to deal with natural disasters, training air force pilots, guiding geologists on digging oil wells, through to helping surgeons rehearse complicated medical procedures," said Al Maskari.

Susie Houh of Ericsson - a lead sponsor of eGames 2006 - said: “eGames is probably the most important event in the Gulf's electronic games calendar and we were delighted to be part of this year's event. eGames is both entertaining and informative and what we particularly liked was the focus on the future of mobile and serious gaming and how we, as an ICT industry, can shape that future.”

Peter Anderssson, Ericsson's Country Manager, said: “The presence of top flight Ericsson speakers (Andreas Johnsson - pictured above) along with the Sony Ericsson brand, was an important part of the eGames 2006. We're staunch supporters of this annual Knowledge Oasis Muscat initiative and intend to bring new and exciting elements to the conference in 2007.”