With Russia’s top game conference and its leading awards show scheduled to occur simultaneously in mid-April, Running With Scissors’ CEO Vince Desi and Marketing Moyel MikeJ wasted no time boarding a jet and getting drunk as they sped to one of gaming’s fastest-growing international hotspots.
“Russia is the new America, and Moscow is the new New York, I love coming here,” enthused Comrade Desi said upon arriving in the former Soviet Union. “The people here are fantastic and the Russian gamers are like groupies at a rock concert. Thank God I don’t look like Elton John.”
The KRI Conference, now in its sixth year, is the Russian equivalent of the GDC, complete with awards, deal signings and surprise announcements. The conference ran from April 18-20 at Moscow’s Kosmos Hotel, where POSTAL III (updated since GDC) was displayed running on the Xbox 360 and a special lecture centered on POSTAL III’s simultaneous development in America and Russia was a highlight of the event.
"There's so much unique about the POSTAL-series, we feel it is our duty to bring POSTAL III to the next level,” vowed producer Andrew Belkin of Akella-TrashMasters, which is co-developing the project with Running With Scissors. “Not an ocean, a continent, 11 time zones or language barriers can stop us from being truly united and dedicated to the big goal —making the best POSTAL game ever," Belkin promised.
Meanwhile, the 2008 Gameland Awards celebrated its fourth anniversary as the gold standard in Russian video and computer game awards at the Club Leningrad on April 19th. The awards honor both Russian and foreign game developers based on gamer polls.
The 2008 GLA's, which are broadcast on the MTV-Russia and Gameland TV, included Vince Desi presenting the nominees for Best Russian Game of the Year and Mike J announcing the Best Xbox 360 Game nominees.