No Major Games Announcements Coming from GDC

Those who are looking to next week's Game Developers Conference as a place to get some juicy news on upcoming releases are sorely out of luck, as none of the console manufacturers have a scheduled keynote and no new games are expected to be announced. Surprisingly though, GDC organizers actually seem happy about this change of pace, preferring the smaller, more intimate gatherings of old.

"I've taken a bit of a shift when it comes to programming keynotes - I really want to focus on developers, and I want to have a developer onstage at GDC every year as a way of showcasing what the conference is about," said conference director Meggan Scavio. "It's not about making news, it's not about announcing things - it's about making better games, and I kind of want to... not really turn them into icons, but I want to recognize the talent of the developers out there."

Scavio went on to praise the return of GDC to its smaller stature, and stated that she prefers E3 to be the show which features all the major US announcements.

"I do, and absolutely. There's a core to GDC that's developer-friendly, and I want it to be a place that's a community. People think of it as that place they go once a year, they see old friends - and when it becomes so enormous, people lose that community feel. They get lost and alone at GDC, and it's not meant to be that way - so I don't mind that E3 is taking off as a trade show again."

So does this news make you more or less interested in GDC? I know some developers at the show have been grumbling over the past few years that the conference was trying to become "E3 lite," so at least that contingent will be happy. Still, this means we have to wait until June for most of the major announcements, and can we really hang on that long? If there is any important breaking news from next week's show then we'll report it, but it sounds like the excitement knob has been turned back a few notches.

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