Game Makers Converge on World's Largest Industry-Only Event as the 2008 Game Developers Conference Returns to San FranciscoAttendees to Learn, Network and Inspire at the Largest GDC to DatePRNewswire SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- CMP's 2008 Game Developers Conference® (GDC) has opened its doors at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, bringing the videogame industry together for a week of networking, learning, and inspiration through this Friday, February 22. The world's largest industry-only event dedicated to the advancement of interactive entertainment gathers thousands of game developers, publishers, industry enthusiasts and members of the working press for five days of lectures, panels, tutorials, roundtable discussions, summits, award ceremonies, a robust expo featuring top tool and service providers, and networking events. Leading the conference content this year are keynote addresses by Microsoft's John Schappert, Corporate Vice President LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business, and celebrated inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. Schappert's talk "A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Community" marks the first return to the GDC keynote stage for Microsoft since 2005. Schappert's keynote, taking place today at 10:30am, is expected to explore the Xbox 360 platform's next step in democratizing game development, vastly opening up the industry for developers of all sizes. The session will set the strategy for Xbox 360 this upcoming year, revealing top developers' plans for the platform in 2008. In Kurzweil's address, "The Next 20 Years of Gaming," the inventor who has been described as "the rightful heir to Thomas Edison" by Inc magazine and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes, will speak to the GDC audience about the next two decades of videogames and what the landscape may well look like come GDC 2028, inspiring attendees to take a dramatic look at the future of games and electronic entertainment. Kurzweil's keynote takes place tomorrow, Thursday, February 21, at 10:30am. "In the past year, the game industry has seen a perfect storm of pop culture taking games to heart while behind the scenes building for a more participatory and connected game playing experience," said Jamil Moledina, executive director of the Game Developers Conference. "By focusing content on these core development trends while dedicating summits to emerging areas such as online worlds, the GDC continues to serve as the world's central forum for both the inspiration and business of all games." The conference features more than 400 lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions covering all aspects of the game business. The week- long event also features the GDC Expo and Career Pavilion, GDC Mobile, GDC Tutorials, the Casual Games Summit, the Game Outsourcing Summit, the IGDA Education Summit, the Independent Games Summit, the Serious Games Summit, the Worlds in Motion Summit, the Game Career Seminar, the Independent Games Festival (IGF), the Game Developers Choice Awards, Game Connection, Video Games Live and more. In response to industry shifts towards community and social platforms, the GDC introduced its myGDC initiative this year. This new attendee tool features enhanced social/professional networking capabilities on the GDC site including the abilities to create and upload customized attendee profiles and search a database of other profiles; to message designers, programmers, publishers, GDC speakers, and game professionals; and to share GDC schedules, projects and ideas. An advanced online scheduling tool was also added to the site this year to better aid attendees' planning and networking in advance of the conference. GDC 2009 will return to the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. The industry-leading event will take place March 23-27, 2009. For a complete list of GDC 2008 event information, please visit http://www.gdconf.com/. About the Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com/) The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world's largest professionals- only game industry event. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games. The GDC attracts over 16,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. The GDC is produced by the CMP Game Group, a division of CMP. About CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) is a media and marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. With the leading online, event and print brands in all technology market categories, and with services and tools that reach beyond traditional advertising, CMP shapes and influences the technology industry worldwide. CMP publishes highly respected media brands such as TechWeb, InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, CRN, EE Times and TechOnline; produces major industry events such as Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, XChange, Game Developers Conference and the Embedded Systems Conferences; and provides business information and marketing services such as the International Customer Management Institute, Semiconductor Insights and Second Life consulting for technology marketers. CMP is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion. For more CMP news, go to cmp.com/news. SOURCE: CMP CONTACT: Sibel Sunar, sibel@fortyseven.com, or Brian Rubin, Web site: http://www.cmp.com/ |