The speaker lineup for the 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit grew by five today, with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences confirming a new slate of speakers for the intimate February event in Las Vegas. All of the newly confirmed attendees fit with the event’s “New Golden Age of Gaming” theme, but perhaps none moreso than Oculus Rift inventor and Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, along with Brendan Iribe, the company’s CEO. The pair is set – unsurprisingly – to give a talk on the future of virtual reality technology.
The newly grown lineup includes three others as well. There’s Keiji Infaune, who is perhaps best known as the creator of numerous hit video games series’, including Resident Evil, Mega Man, Street Fighter, Lost Planet, and Dead Rising. Hilmar Veigar Petursson is the CEO of CCP Games, which just celebrated its 10 years as the developer and overseer of EVE Online‘s single-shard MMO universe. Lastly, Rami Ismail is the co-founder and “Business & Development Guy” at Vlambeer, a Dutch indie studio that made a big splash in 2013 with the release of the mobile title, Ridiculous Fishing.
Not all of the newly confirmed attendees’ talk topics are confirmed, though we do know that Petursson will reprise his 2013 D.I.C.E. Europe talk, “The Human Brain is the Platform – Gaming in the Golden Age.” Petursson and the rest of the newcomers will be joined by a rich slate of previously confirmed speakers, including The Fullbright Company’s Steve Gaynor, Journey composer Austin Wintory, Kabam Studios’ Andrew Sheppard, Google’s Niantic Labs head John Hanke, Funomena’s Robin Hunicke, If You Can’s Trip Hawkins, Unity’s David Helgason, former Microsoft game publishing VP Ed Fries, and MLG head Sundance DiGiovanni.
A tremendous lineup, to say the least. The 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit runs from February 4-6, so expect more speakers – as well as keynote confirmations – to be announced in the coming weeks. Last year’s event featured a face-to-face showdown between Valve boss Gabe Newell and Hollywood darling J.J. Abrams. Should be a fun show this year, what with all of the shifts we’ve seen in gaming since then.
