by ERIK LEIJON

The next generation of video game consoles will be on the minds of game developers at the third Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS), Nov. 8–9 at Palais des Congrès. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé and famed Japanese developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi will give keynote speeches at this meeting of the gaming elite, the largest of its kind in Canada. Over 800 members of the industry are expected.

Last year’s MIGS, the first to include the “International” in its moniker, ended on a sour note, as developers were flustered with a perceived lack of innovation in the latest games. With the current consoles (Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube) giving way to the next-generation consoles (Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii), development studios were churning out more sequels than ever, and most panels degenerated into arguments over the divisive issue. This year, MIGS content coordinator (and CTO of local developer A2M) Martin Walker wanted to make sure the conference steered in another direction. “We wanted to stay off that track—we want to be looking forward,” he says.

Wii leads the way

Less than a month after MIGS 2005, Walker and Alliance numériQC began to aggressively look for the biggest “hot shots” in the industry for this year’s event. Alliance numériQC is a business network where most of Quebec’s digital entertainment companies combine forces to represent the local industry and promote growth.

The big hot shot of this year’s keynotes will be Nintendo of America’s Fils-Aimé. Developers are excited over the veteran Japanese company’s unique business strategy for their new console, the Wii. Instead of using a standard video game controller, Wii players will use what looks like a television remote. Inside the remote is a motion-control sensor that will track the movements of the gamer as he/she moves. As an example, the Wii remote is being used like a tennis racket in Wii Sports, and as a gun and sword in the Ubisoft action game Red Steel.

“Nintendo is forcing the hands of the publishers to create original games,” Walker says. “Developers are saying, ‘I want to design a new game style.’”

Nintendo isn’t the only company releasing a new system. Microsoft released the Xbox 360 last November, and Sony’s Playstation 3 will be available on November 17. A major issue for developers will be the change from the old to the new, as games on the next-gen systems will be expected to have better graphics, artificial intelligence and gameplay. Rémi Racine, chairman of the board of directors for Alliance numériQC and president of A2M, says the next-gen consoles will mean teams being four to five times bigger than in the past, and the pipeline—the process of creating games—will change completely.

Sex and the real world

From an artistic perspective, Mizuguchi, formerly of Sega and now heading his own studio, Q Entertainment, will give a keynote speech on how to translate inspiration into a successful videogame. “People are expecting him to ‘wow’ us with his creativeness,” says Walker of Mizuguchi, the creator of highly original titles such as the musical shooter Rez and the Deee-Lite inspired Space Channel 5.

Most of the other speeches will be of the technical variety, but other speakers include Michelle Hinn from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on improving accessibility to gamers with disabilities. Brenda Brathwaite will talk on the evolution of sex in gaming, and Elan Lee will discuss Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG), where a player interacts with real-world media (like Web sites, phones and newspapers) and with real people, in what generally feels like a surreal nightmare.

Lee is considered a pioneer in the ARG field: His company, 42 Entertainment, created the viral campaign for Halo 2, the Web site ilovebees.com, which had gamers deciphering clues from the mysterious Web site to win a chance to play the game before its release.