The end of physical media is nigh! That's according to Phil Harrison, at least. See, he's "pretty confident [kids] will never buy a physical media product" in the future - that's counting CDs, DVDs, games in boxes... Man, could you imagine talking to your future kid? "Err, daddy what's a dee-vee-dee? Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?"

Have you always been asking yourself, where did Phil Harrison go? Well, he joined Infogrames. The ex-Sony Computer Entertainment president now plays a significant role in Atari's slow comeback - though that would be an understatement in itself. He is the president of Atari-parent Infogrames, after all. More at the full story.

There's been talk of the upcoming E3 being downsized by the just-held Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007. Reasons vary: this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo will be an invitation-only event, and the GDC saw a 32 percent rise of attendance.

We've all witnessed so much hype for this year's GDC, all with good reason. The GDC people worked hard to bring out a good show; GDC boss Jamil Moledina and his crew brought a good load of dealmaking, press conferences and industry parties to go around in the event.  It also helped that they were able to secure the interesting hands-on hardware workshops with Microsoft and Intel, as well as hotshot keynote speakers such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Phil Harrison and Cliff Bleszinkski.

Said GDC boss Moledina:

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Our alumni attendees uniformly felt it was the best GDC they've attended in recent years, citing the high quality and relevance of sessions, while newcomers were saying it was the best event in the game industry where they made connections and deals with all the key people they now had access to.

More than 16,300 people and 260 exhibitors attended this year's GDC, seeing a rise of 30 and 32 percent, respectively. Everybody's expecting an even bigger attendance at next year's GDC, but as Moledina cites, it's not the size of the event, but the quality that matters. This may exactly be why the usual E3 people are moving to the GDC.

During the GDC, PlayStationUniverse (PSU) was able to sneak by the Linden Lab booth and ask one of the them about their thoughts on PlayStation Home. A lot of people have compared it to their Second Life MMO after all, so why not ask the devs themselves of their take on Sony's big project. We're sure some of you are curious about it, too.

Jeff Luan of Linden Labs responded to Phil Harrison's keynote in which he revealed PS Home with: "Mimicry is the greatest form of flattery for us." While he's supportive of Sony's project and says that it's great for console gamers, he doesn't seem to be worried about how it will affect their MMO title on the PC. The PS3 and PC have different markets and it's kinda like comparing apples and oranges, and whatnot.

While Microsoft and Nintendo are having a fuss about it, the good thing about this is that Linden Lab remains positive about PlayStation Home. Friendly competition, that's how things are played.

 

There is much to see at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) currently going down today. Now, in case you find yourself lost with the information flooding this event (or perhaps live under a rock), we'll be providing a basic rundown on what can be expected to take place once the event goes full swing:

Major keynote speakers

• Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo will be expected to kick things off with his major keynote speech "A Creative Vision," although it is expected that Nintendo is not going to be releasing any new info...at least for now.
• Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCEI) boss Phil Harrison is also going to be present, and will be doing the keynote speech titled "Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the Third Age of Video Games," which may possibly carry details on new firmware updates for the PS3, among other things. Keep track of Phil's keynote this March 7, Wednesday.

Events summary

The conference proper will be host to more than 350 lectures panels, tutorials and round-table discussions taking place from March 5 to 9, 2007. Going into specifics, expect these activities to take place within these GDC sub-categories:

• GDC Expo
• GDC Mobile
• The Serious Games Summit GDC
• The Independent Games Festival (IGF)
• The Game Developers Choice Awards
• Game Connection
• Video Games Live
  

Just make sure to click on the links to see what sort of goodies you can expect, such as composer Koji Kondo's performance over at the Video Games Live event. The GDC runs from March 5 to March 9 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Looking further ahead, the GDC 2008 is expected to take place from February 18 to 22 next year.

Paul Sheppard of ITI Techmedia and CEO Andrew McLennan of Metaforic will be speaking in the sponsored speaker session of the Game Developers' Conference (GDC). The conference will be held in San Francisco from March 5 to 9. Other speakers to be at the event are Phil Harrison and Shigeru Miyamoto.

The session's topic will reveal a working notation for game design that will allow the game experience to be evaluated even before the game undergoes production. The new methodology is expected to cut millions from game development costs. ITI Techmedia announced that US$ 10 million has been invested to standardize and establish the development platform worldwide.

The platform should reflect this new methodology, including standard production processes and distribution methods for online PC, console and handheld games. Hand-in-hand with Metaforic Ltd, the Scottish company will demonstrate how developers can already gauge their game's fun factor by using "difficulty graphs."

Even before production, designers can tweak difficulty levels to keep the game fun, and avoiding the opposite extremes of boredom and frustration. Metaforic will be the organization to commercialize the game design technology. The methodology is a product of ITI Techmedia's research and development program.

Andrew McLennan reasons out, "The black art of Game Design is being able to make games that are fun and playable. This research is beginning to shed light on practical ways to understand if a design is likely to be good in a way that working game designers can use, tune and play with."

ITI Techmedia’s sponsored speaker session will take place on Wednesday, March 7 at 4pm. Representatives from both ITI Techmedia and Metaforic can also be found at Meeting Room 6109 in the North Hall.