The Game Developers’ Conference in San Jose, California was reminiscent of a mini E3 which was solely directed at developers. Industry personnel flooded the lobby of the Fairmont hotel and the streets of the beautiful, little Californian city, soaking in the last few joys of having GDC in San Jose. Next year marks the start of a six year run for GDC in its new home town, San Francisco. The news that comes out of GDC is minuscule compared to what will be hitting the ears of developers and gamers across the globe in a few months at E3, but nevertheless, some of the industry big wigs love to give the industry a taste of what is to come a little sooner at this event.

At Sony’s keynote speech given Wednesday night by Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison, the launch of the PS3 was confirmed for November 2006. “Early November”, just in case reassurance was necessary. One highly anticipated game not intended for the PS3 but due out in 2007, God of War II, was definitely the highlight of the show for me. It was somewhat disappointing hearing that the sequel would not make its mark on the PS3, but just watching the gameplay footage made me want to bust out my PS2 and bring Ares back to my tv screen. The famous “Duck Demo” was also shown and on display at the PlayStation booth where fanatics could actually control the demo themselves for the first time. Another demo, the much anticipated Unreal engine 3, was also available for manipulation for the first time ever on a trade show floor. It received quite the crowd accompanied with numerous exclamations of awe. One ultra important question that many hoped would be revealed this conference, “how much the PS3 will cost the public?” was left unanswered. Wednesday night ended with a Sony party featuring modern meets alien décor and developers dancing to trance music

Thursday began with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s keynote titled, “Disrupting Development”. Intrigued, most people in the audience sat around hoping for a closer look into the Revolution, Nintendo’s latest creation. Even though the new machine was M.I.A., a different announcement was made that tickled the ears of Nintendo fan boys throughout the room. Every conference where this one specific game makes an appearance, the crowd seems to just go completely wild. I clearly remember being at E3 and Link appearing on the screen. The hushed crowd disappeared as a roar of pure excitement made its way through the fans of the Zelda series. Here we were again with the announcement that Link himself was making his way to the Nintendo DS in a game with graphics designed after the Gamecube title, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Utilizing the dual screen capabilities of the DS like most other 3D games for the handheld, one screen will be a map and the other from the traditional gameplay perspective. The Nintendo booth also had about a dozen or so DS Lite’s available. Its amazingly sleek design, accompanied by a white finish with ultra modern flare made me want to pawn off my old silver DS for one of these new, hip ones.

On the PC side of the conference, one major announcement which caught the tongues of attendees (accompanied by a mild look of confusion). Dell had announced on Wednesday that the company was in fact buying super sleek gaming PC manufacturer, Alienware. Even though they will continue to work separately, fans of the Alienware name might be feel a little less “cool” or “unique” when buying a new gaming machine which is now owned by industry bigwig, Dell. As if he could read the minds of the crowd, Alienware CEO Nelson Gonzalez assured that the company will not lose its stylish edge with the acquisition.

On a final note, there was a distinct lack of a female perspective throughout the week. The four other girls and I stuck out like sheep in a pack of wolves, until we made our way to the “Women in Gaming” seminar by Microsoft Game Studios. In a small room on the second floor of the Fairmont Hotel, about fifty women congregated to celebrate accomplishments in conquering gender diversity in the gaming industry. Even though women still held a very small percentage of the population present at the conference, it was obvious that they have come a long way in the past few years. Shane Kim, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, gave a determined speech on diversity and how important women are to the growth of gaming. After the speeches, out came a Xbox 360 display on a large projector and invited the crowd to play against and also learn to play with the girls from the PMS clan. Overall, the seminar was a huge success, and it was nice to finally meet women who were making a difference in the gaming world too.