INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

What does work is the act of providing a reason for why they should come. That is the central theme of Oakwood University’s Entrepreneurship Center, OU Launchpad, and it is why gaming is at the heart of the center’s success. OU Launchpad is structured around ideation and microentrepreneurship. These two...

We’ve taken the lessons learned from our extensive experience in working with professional players to teach gamers of every level how to play while simultaneously reducing risk of injury. Everyone plays better when they play pain-free and we want to help them achieve that.   I started Respawn Therapy in...

Over the last seven years, their mission has been to provide an environment that brings game developers together to build the games of today and the metaverse of tomorrow. As digital experience developers, 302 Interactive has adopted the best practices of modern game development, product design, lean, and agile methodologies...

GAMING APPEALS TO OUR INNATE SENSE OF HUMANITY. IT INSPIRES CREATIVITY, PLAY, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMMUNITY These also happen to be the fundamentals of today’s video games. This wasn’t designed by accident, either. Playing video games empowers people no matter their backgrounds, religion, politics, race, gender or location. Sugar Gamers exemplify...

“At the beginning of this pandemic, during my free time, I started consuming video game streams, and on one of the many channels that Facebook Gaming has, I met again with Jose Vargas, who had just started streaming #Dota2 content from Amsterdam. In the coming months, we understood how big...

HeliconNFT is a new online universe, combining a gaming metaverse with a NFT buying & trading platform that provides real rewards where you can play, mine and earn to become the master of a new market. Ultimately, HeliconNFT bridges the gap between centralised games and decentralized NFTs for a true...

Polycade is the gaming platform for in-person play. The Polycade software powers PC-based consoles and arcade machines, including their proprietary commercial-grade two and four-player arcade machines. The software features are designed to support in-person and location-based gaming, while connecting these physical communities with their digital counterparts — features like small-pond...

For Full Sail University, esports came naturally. Since the school has offered gaming degrees for over 25 years, it came as no surprise when esports culture became widespread among Full Sail’s students. The wildly popular degree programs have made gaming just as prevalent on campus as music or film. And...

The global gaming market is forecast to worth $257 billion by 2025 and of the 2.7 billion gamers worldwide, 46% of them are women. The majority of these women experience hate and toxicity while gaming, simply for being women. In fact, in an effort to avoid harassment, 75% of women...

The gaming community has always been full of diverse people and communities. However, the developers of games have not always reflected the same diversity. Marginalized people have not been offered many of the same opportunities as their counterparts. It’s time to move across the country, and the only person with...

But Newzoo wasn’t its founder’s (Peter Warman and Thijs Hagoort) first venture into the world of business. Far from it. After becoming friends playing basketball in high school, the industrious duo sold custom-designed t-shirts. Those early days taught them a valuable lesson: custom production based on manuals does not scale...

THE INCEPTION Founded in 2014, LimpidFrog emerged as an Art & Design service to gaming companies. In the beginning, our office was a 1-room apartment with a cooking stove for a table. A team of innovative minds and the common goal to take design to the next level got together...

CREATIVE, SUSTAINABLE FUTURESGTR is an interactive accelerator program dedicated to supporting independent studios from all over the world. With the development, publishing and fundraising expertise they need to take their content global and towards a more sustainable business.     The interactive era is upon us. Independent developers all over...

Nerd Street Gamers is a national esports infrastructure that puts accessibility, integrity and opportunity at the forefront of everything they do. As gaming communities slowly began to gain traction on a small scale, the CEO of Nerd Street Gamers and Localhost, John Fazio, knew that individuals nationwide would soon realize...

This is the story about a company with such potential, it could become a top 10 startup. A bold claim? Sure! Backed by facts? Stay tuned. It has adventure, love, death, and much, much more. It’s the story about a company with a concept so innovative, its creator accurately predicted...

Emotional Ideas, inc. aka EI, is a sports and entertainment technology company revolutionizing known attractions, games, and products for the next generation of entertainment thrill-seekers. We are currently taking the popular sport of go-kart racing and combining it with the strategy and skill of Esports gaming to pioneer a new...

GamerSafer’s mission is to scale safety and fair play experiences to millions of players worldwide. Fraud, crime, and toxicity are present in many online interactions, compromising user experience, lifetime value and engagement. The co-founders of GamerSafer, a former executive from the gaming industry and a social impact entrepreneur, both gamers...

READY PLAYER ONE“What if I actually owned my digital games and in-game items?” That’s been the question on most gamers’ minds.   With limited solutions and some gamers resorting to the shady secondhand grey market to make use of their content outside of the game, David Hanson and Nicolas Gilot,...

Our after-school league coalesces in-game coaching with STEAM instruction into a dynamic, engaging program for organizations, schools and school districts. We’re in the business of building vibrant esports communities with the goal of being the highlight of our students’ days. We believe in recognizing abilities that have (for far too...

GRT Pro Flipper is a brand-new Mobile Trampoline Simulator that takes trampoline to the next level. All other trampoline-based apps on the App stores are based on simpler 2D gameplay that does not truly match what a trampolinist actually does in the air at the Olympics. Developed by the Freestyle...

As the forerunners of “Futuretainment,” The VirtX is the first of its kind broadcasting & streaming aggregating service in Virtual Reality in the form of shared entertainment (live sports/events/movies/gaming) to the B2C audiences. The VirtX is a platform which enables networks to broadcast their live content in Virtual Reality to...

Indie game developers are the heart and soul of the gaming industry, and without them, we wouldn’t have as much innovation as we currently have, and have been enjoying since Pong. With that said, indie game developers are always struggling to create their games because of various reasons, and this...

Trapper, Ali and I had lived through building and operating live games like Star Trek Timelines, investing millions to build up the infrastructure to enable it. We didn’t think anyone should have to do all of that again. Our team has a unique background that includes not only making games—but...

The Indie Cluster is a platform providing opportunities, resources, and services centered around supporting indie game developers. We focus on quality assurance testing, discoverability, hands-on production, and curating a traveling booth for our games. As our digital future demands more interactive experiences, sustainability is crucial for these small businesses. We’ve...