GDC Losing Focus In E3's Wake?

In the wake of E3's breakup, developers and attendees going to the annual Game Developer's Conference this week are wondering out loud: is the event losing its focus? As GDC expands, what was once (even just a few years ago) a somewhat quiet and intimate affair is taking on the airs of the now-deceased videogame extravaganza. The key for the Conference this year, the first post-E3, is going to be to make sure that the community aspect of the event remains intact in the face of over 12,000 attendees. As conference director Jamil Moledina points out, "The main lesson from (the transition of E3) is that we have to stick to what we do best: providing learning and inspiration to independent developers." Here's hoping the coming week bears that out.

Sony Is Having An Insane E3ish GDC Week

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony Home - This is the one to watch for.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14459 4 [neogaf.com]

Heavenly Sword:

http://i14.tinypic.com/42i4ygj.png [tinypic.com]
http://i12.tinypic.com/40k658l.png [tinypic.com]
http://www.playsyde.com/news_4067_en.html [playsyde.com]

Warhawk - Downloadable Playstation Network Game
32 players online play with dedicated servers
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14457 6 [neogaf.com]
http://retromovies.ign.com/games/video/article/693 /693580/ignweekly_episode38_flvlowwide.flv [ign.com]

Tekken 5DR - Downloadable 1080p Playstation Network Game 20 bucks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmB2cV-Lz-w [youtube.com]

God of War PS2
http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/811/811719/imgs_1.h tml [ign.com]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwaUIShOM54 [youtube.com]

Motorstorm
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1103341 [hardforum.com]

And Virtua Fighter 5, Flow, it's going to be quite a week for Sony.

GDC != E3, but some possible alternatives

[jchenx]

Well, someone has to fill in for E3. Why exactly did they stop having E3 anyway? Seems silly.

As someone who's been to a few E3s, I can definitely tell you that it's not all it's cracked up to be. Every year, it's like an arms race, with all the companies trying to build these larger, and larger booths. However, the venue itself was a horrible place to show off your game to retailers/press, since it's loud, crowded, lots of distractions, and rarely do you have time to honestly try out a product or talk to representatives. Thus, lots of companies started actually hosting their own private functions at hotels outside of the main E3 venue.

To a lesser extent, E3 always put a lot of demand on developers for having that E3 build ready for demo. Eliminating E3, or at least having it moved later, theoretically makes things easier. Some would argue, though, that having E3 as a milestone isn't necessarily a bad thing, and for many companies, they'll continue to have some sort of early milestone build target anyway (if you won't show it at E3, you can always show it off at other events, or private showings).

Back to GDC, that's not really an appropriate 1-for-1 replacement of E3. GDC really is supposed to be a gathering for developers, not just one big marketing bonanza. There are some E3 replacement ideas being kicked around, such as the Entertainment for All [wikipedia.org] show, which is actually open to everyone (not just those in the games industry). There is also the Penny-Arcade Expo [wikipedia.org], a gathering of gaming fans that's getting larger and larger each year. Personally, I think those are better fits for a true "E3 replacement", but one that's really focused towards the fanbase.

Re:GDC Never Had A Focus

[Anubis333]

As someone presenting at GDC who works Crytek, a very tech heavy developer that many believe sometimes defines the 'cutting edge'. I would like you to know that there are some companies who work hard to foster understanding of 'cutting edge' tech, and share knowledge with others, even when it can be detrimental to them.

We are doing lectures and tutorials. Our graphics/programming tutorials are very in depth and not only offer a behind the scenes look, but code examples as well. We also author articles in many shader/game programming texts to offer a decent level of transparency in the work we do. Lastly, when we released Far Cry, it came with an SDK and many of the assets on their non compiled forms (3dsmax files).

Though yes, this hurts us sometimes. For instance, another large developer has mirrored a lot of the feature set we have shown in the past two years, with only about a 6 month lag, then put the R&D money into a large marketing campaign, to make people think that the features (renamed) are original, and their own.

The game development community, and sharing knowledge matters a lot to us. Game developers don't have to act in the manner you described; many just choose to. We are presenting some really great stuff this year, if you are in SF you should check it out!