Sperry, Tom (VyK Games)

Thema: "Outsourcing Best Practices ? Words of advice for developers and publishers working in today?s global economy"

Tom Sperry is CEO and Chairman of Vyk Games, headquartered in Shanghai, China, with an office in Portland, OR.

Prior to his role at Vykarian, Sperry served as CEO of Exit Games since 2005 and held senior management positions with HNC Software (Executive Director) and Looking Glass Studios (Director). Tom began his career at Microsoft Corporation, where he was an International Program Manager in the Games Division. Tom holds an M.B.A. from The Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, International Executive M.B.A. Program located in Hong Kong, 2002-2004.

Session Summary
Expanding budgets, simultaneous platform launches, global MMOs, bonded financing, casual games, bigger teams, venture capital, movie deals, tighter deadlines... these are commonplace phrases in the games industry. Yet the goal of publishers and developers is still the same – put out great games that meet consumer demand – from simple casual games played on mobile platforms, to deeper, higher-fidelity games played on today’s increasingly better-performing hardware platforms.

The industry reality is that publishers and developers must lower costs to increase profit margins for all parties, without comprising the development budget and, more importantly, the quality of the game.

Outsourcing is a flexible solution to rapidly scale diverse talent in order to meet the pressure of budgets and deadlines while still being able to focus on creating great games. If managed correctly, outsourcing is the solution to addressing these challenges, but has its risks...

Tom sperry likes to present and offer some advice about how to manage outsourced projects effectively so that the end result is always what the developer intends, primarily to develop a great, high quality game at manageable costs and on time.

Tom Sperry
Vyk Games
Chief Executive Officer

www.vykarian.com