puffy on 15 March 2009
I'm going to take a look at the last few years of the Game Developers Conference and also the differences and similarities of this years and try to answer the question: Is GDC '09 worth looking forward to?
2006
Nintendo
- Iwata presents the keynote
- Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Announced
- Sega and Hudson VC support Announced
- Brain Training demoed on stage
Microsoft
- Nothing XBOX 360 related
Sony
- God of War 2 Announced
- Comfirmation of November release for PS3
- Playstation Network Platform detailed
- Resistance, Formula 1, Warhawk, MotorStorm, Ratchet and Clank all demoed on stage
2007
Nintendo
- Miyamoto's first GDC keynote in 8 years
- "Check Mii Out" Channel Announced
- Miyamoto claims we've been playing Mario 128 all along in the form of Pikmin
Microsoft
- 512MB Memory Unit Announced
- Larger XBLA sizes Announced
Sony
- Home Announced and demoed
- Trophies Announced
- LittleBigPlanet demoed on stage
- Singstar Announced
2008
Nintendo
- Information on Mario Kart Wii, WiiWare game announcements
- No keynote
Microsoft
- Gears of War 2 announced
- Fable 2 demoed on stage
Sony
- Details Home tools
- No keynote
2009
Nintendo
- Iwata is returning to make a keynote speech, last time was 2006, it is entitled 'Discovering New Development Opportunities'. This may mean it'll be based around Wii MotionPlus and the new features of the DSi.
- Will also speak about WiiWare, DSiWare and the new dev tools such as flash support
- Also there is a crazy rumor saying that Zelda, Kid Icarus AND Ice Climbers will all be there.
- Thoughts: Nintendo will announce one or two games or eloborate on something like Wii Sports Resort when talking about WM+ and the features of the DSi
Microsoft
- Molyneux's 'Project X' possibly revealed (source: http://games.kikizo.com/news/200810/molyneux-next-game-poised-for-gdc-2009.asp ) - Unlikely though
- Thoughts: Microsoft will keep everything for E3 where it'll 'BREAK THE BANK'
Sony
- Team ICO's Fumito Ueda confirmed to be at GDC
- Thoughts: If anything happens it'll be ICO related.
OTHER
- Hideo Kojima will have his first ever GDC keynote - On a related note, Konami have stated that Kojima will make an announcement 'closer to GDC'
So is GDC worth looking forward to? If you're a fan of gaming there's sure to be an even smattering of news across all platforms but if you're only a fan of one company or system then you should probably look to E3 for our fix of awesome announcements.
Anything I've left out, let me know..
