Casual Connect Rebrands To GameDaily Connect

Greenlit Content announced at Casual Connect London that this would be the last show under the storied conference’s name since its founding in 2005. The rebrand, which combines both brand identities, will provide a more holistic space for developers who work outside of mobile and casual games, as Casual Connect was founded specifically for those developers.

“We’re thrilled to take this global game conference into the future under a new identity— GameDaily Connect,” Libe MG Ackerman, director of Casual Connect, said. “The core values that have driven this show since it began in 2005 will remain unchanged. Our goal is to create a stronger, more united global games industry by connecting game developers and industry leaders in an authentic, conversation-driven setting. GameDaily Connect will continue to do this around the world with localized events in the USA, Europe, Middle East / North Africa and China.”

The term “casual” has less and less meaning in a world where nearly everyone plays games, regardless of their self-identification as “core” or otherwise. Casual Connect has been gradually broadening to invite in many more facets of the game industry that simply don’t fit into a “casual” category. By bringing everything under the GameDaily brand, we’re unifying our core values — to tell the stories that game industry professionals need to hear about.

GameDaily’s publication can gain new industry eyeballs from the event and, in tandem with the events, shine a spotlight on key issues affecting developers, publishers, and other industry professionals. People who loved the old Casual Connect shouldn’t fret, however. The show will still cover the “casual” parts of the industry, but the larger goal is to spotlight many more areas that are important to this massive industry, including emerging fields like esports, cloud gaming, VR/AR/MR/XR, and so on. The shows offer insightful discussion and education like GDC, but on a much smaller scale. This scale is much more conducive to networking, as well as making new contacts and business deals.

“I’ve followed the Casual Connect event series for more than a decade, and I’ve been extremely impressed by its international expansion,” said John Benyamine, CEO and co-founder of Greenlit Content. “Having Jessica [Tams] and Casual Connect join with Greenlit Content is truly an honor. This is huge for Greenlit’s global expansion efforts. Both Casual Connect and the industry have been evolving quickly. We feel that we have an incredible opportunity to define what an event series really looks like in 2019 for the games industry.”

Current and upcoming conferences:

• Casual Connect Europe (London),May 28-30, 2019: More than 100 leaders in the video games industry are speaking on topics ranging from game design, publishing and esports to VR/AR, next-generation technology and more. For more information, visit europe.casualconnect.org.
• GameDaily Connect USA (Anaheim, CA), Aug. 27-29, 2019: Inspiration from the most respected thought leaders in the games industry. Join 250 speakers over 14 tracks representing the leaders in the next generation of games. For more information, visit http://usa.casualconnect.org/.
• GameDaily Connect Asia (Shenzhen, China), Nov. 10-12, 2019:GameDaily Connect Asia is about matching the creativity of the games industry with new media innovation and investment to find the next big thing. It brings together more than 100 speakers and lectures from the leaders in the emerging markets of the games industry covering game design, social gaming, funding, next-generation technology and best practices. For more information, visit http://asia.casualconnect.org
• GameDaily Connect Middle East: Details to be announced soon.

GameDaily Connect will make its debut at GameDaily Connect USA in Anaheim (Disneyland), CA on August 27, 2019.