GamesBeat Who’s Got Game? Finalists

VentureBeat passed along the names of the finalists for the Who’s Got Game? startup competition at the GamesBeat 09 game conference. To get to this point, nominees has to make it past a group of judges, who reviewed applications from more than 50 video game and virtual world startups before deciding upon seven finalists. Those seven finalists will be allowed to present their unique company brands and strategies to GamesBeat attendees.

The panel of judges included VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi; Ed Fries, CEO of Figure Prints and former head of Microsoft Game Studios; Kevin Bachus, co-founder of Microsoft’s Xbox; James Cham, associate partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, Eric Goldberg, head of Crossover Technologies; and Jay Eum, managing director at TransLink Capital.

So who are these companies? You can find out more after the break:

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GamesBeat 2009 Speakers Announced

VentureBeat today announced the speaker line-up for this year’s GamesBeat Conference. GamesBeat 2009 is the inaugural year for the conference and is the only gathering focused entirely on the business of games. Top speakers on this year’s schedule include Sony Online Entertainment’s President, John Smedley, 38 Studios founder and Major League Baseball All-Star Pitcher Curt Schilling, Creative Artists Agency game head Seamus Blakely, Bing Gordon of leading venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Crispy Gamer co-founder John Keefer. The conference takes place on March 24, 2009 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. A full list of speakers can be found after the break.

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