Level Up: The Evolving Relationship Between Filmmaking and Gaming
Moderator:
Patrick Sweeney, Founder/Partner, Interactive Entertainment Law Group
Panelist:
Blake Rochkind, Head of Lyrical Games, Lyrical Games
Russell Binder, Partner, Striker Entertainment
Amanda Kruse, Vice President of Business Development, Blumhouse Games
Speakers
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Blake RochkindHead of Lyrical GamesBlake Rochkind leads Lyrical Games, a new publishing label championing bold and ambitious independent games. Lyrical Games recently announced their first title, Valor Mortis, to much interest at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live. Before launching Lyrical, Blake was Head of Business Development at Private Division (a label of Take-Two Interactive), working with some of the industry’s most acclaimed independent studios. Prior to that, Blake began his career as an agent at United Talent Agency (UTA), where he represented marquee creators and companies across the independent games landscape.
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Patrick SweeneyFounder, Interactive Entertainment Law GroupPatrick Sweeney is the founder of the Interactive Entertainment Law Group in Southern California. He is one of the leading attorneys in the video game industry, having served both as in-house and external counsel to a variety of companies in his career. The Interactive Entertainment Law Group is a boutique law firm with its primary office in Los Angeles. The firm also has an office in Colombia, servicing Latin American clients. Overall, the firm has represented over 400 clients from more than 30 different countries in the last 10 years. In his 25 years in the games industry, Sweeney has negotiated an array of game development agreements, resulting in the commercial release of more than 1,000 games across all distribution platforms and territories. In addition, he has represented clients with respect to the game rights for more than 50 major motion pictures and television properties, as well as negotiated numerous technology licenses, acquisitions, and other agreements inherent to the games industry for many of the most famous game titles and franchises. Prior to establishing the Interactive Entertainment Law Group in late 2013, Sweeney headed the Video Game practice for Reed Smith LLP and helped to grow the practice into the largest game-specific legal team in North America. Sweeney is a frequent speaker on legal issues pertaining to the games industry on behalf of organizations such as Law Seminars International, International Game Developers Association, American Bar Association, and the Beverly Hills Bar. He is also a founding member and former president of the Video Game Bar Association, an invitation-only organization made up of the top legal practitioners in the games industry. Sweeney was previously an adjunct professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, where he taught a course entitled Video Game Agreements. He has also lectured law students at UCLA, Vanderbilt University, Loyola Law School, USC, and George Washington University. Sweeney earned a BA from Vanderbilt University, and a JD from Whittier Law School.
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Amanda KruseVice President Business Development, Blumhouse GamesAmanda Kruse is the VP of Business Development at Blumhouse Games, where she helps shape the studio’s slate of original horror games by forging partnerships across the interactive entertainment space. She was previously Head of Business Development at Devolver Digital’s Big Fan Games, and has held leadership roles at Hivemind (The Witcher, The Expanse) and Lionsgate Games, where she co-founded the division and served as Creative Director on titles like Blair Witch, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, and integrations with Fortnite and Dead by Daylight.
