GDC isn't just for developers

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) began on March 9th and runs through March 13th. Yesterday I watched the Sony Press Conference live on the 1up website. The conference was about thirty minutes long and just showed off the PS3 motion controller called Move (which wasn't too impressive. The current PS3 audience isn't going to bother with motion controls and the casual gamers who like to use them aren't going to pay twice as much for a PS3 than they would for a Wii). I participated in a live chat thread on the Gametrailers forums about the conference and the vast majority of those watching were hugely disappointed. Others quickly rushed to Sony's defense claiming that GDC isn't for consumers, it's for developers, and so we shouldn't be expecting any announcements. But is this actually true or yet another excuse for a poor performance?

There is a reason that people have come to expect announcements at GDC every year. It is because announcements are usually made. Looking at the past three years, Sony announced Home and LittleBigPlanet at GDC in 2007. Epic Games revealed Gears of War 2 at GDC in 2008. Last year we saw our first teaser trailer of Modern Warfare 2 at GDC. These were all pretty huge announcements so to say that GDC isn't for announcements is absolutely wrong. GDC isn't just for developers.

Although there usually are a few bombshells, it isn't like E3 in that announcements aren't flying fast and frequently. Microsoft and Nintendo didn't even have conferences at all. On the other hand, Epic Games is holding two press conferences with rumors of some pretty huge announcements. Could Gears of War 3 sneak into one of these conferences? One is scheduled to start at 2 pm tonight and the other at 2 pm on Friday. Since GDC is located in San Francisco this year, that means it should be around 5 pm on the Eastern Time.