MMORPG News - CES Panel @ Gamasutra

Gamasutra recaps the recent CES panel, Virtual Worlds and the MMO Explosion, in which industry luminaries discuss the state of the genre.

At the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a panel titled "Virtual Worlds and the Massively Multiplayer Gaming Explosion" reviewed one of the year's largest and most burgeoning trends, examining issues from competition with console gaming to socialization, in-game ads and monetization. Is the shrink-wrapped box dead? What's left after WoW? Where will future innovation come from?

Trion World Network CEO Dr. Lars Buttler; Bob Ferrari, executive director of business development and sales for Turbine; AMD senior product manager Ian McNaughton; Stormfront Studios president and CEO Don Daglow; Flagship Studios' business development director and general counsel Steve Goldstein; Akamai product line director Kris Alexander and business development and international operations VP David Christensen of Sony Online Entertainment all participated in the panel, which was moderated by Michael Rowe, manager of the 3D Internet and Intraverse Department at IBM's Research Group.