Nintendo and Capcom's big bosses are headlining this year's CEDEC over in Japan. At the developer conference, Shigeru Miyamoto will talk about how to start game development while Inafune will be lecturing people on an area yet to be revealed. More in the full article.

If your bet during last year's Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) wasn't able to nab first place, then perhaps you'll have better luck this year as the Game Developers Conference has opened up the nominations for the 2008 GDCA event to be held this coming February 20.

Read more about it in the full article after the jump!

  

There was a time when Sega had 65% of the gaming industry's market share in North America - the time when Sonic the Hedgehog was a lot cooler than an Italian plumber, the time when Yu Suzuki was comparable to Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. Arcade fans spent countless hours getting the fastest time in Hang-On, perfecting the act of not killing civilians in Virtua Cop, and trying to beat in Virtua Fighter.

It's sad to see one of the most influential companies in video game history struggle in today's tough competition, but we have to admit that Sega's presence is not as strong as it was before - not as strong as it should be. Some credit this to the losses that came with Dreamcast's fall, while some point fingers at lackluster games in recent years. What we can be certain about is that fans want to see Sega in its former glory.

A quick look at Sega's upcoming and recent games line-up reveal familiar titles for young and old, most on multiple platforms. Where's the problem, then? Pretty much every gamer is part of their target market, especially since most of Sega's established franchises are aimed at the biggest audience possible, so why is the company not doing as well as other publishers?

Without having to nitpick on quality of particular titles that didn't experience warm reception, let's just put up a battle plan that would rile up Sega fans while giving the former champ a good chance of propelling to the top. In other words, a Sega fan's wish list.

Read the entire article right after the jump!

Included in the 200 candidates for Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of the Year" is one of gaming's very own icons, Shigeru Miyamoto. His page in their poll for the list describes him as such:

AGE: 54
OCCUPATION: Game Designer for Nintendo game systems
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0

PRO: Most successful game designer, creator of Super Mario, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda, whose new platform, the Wii, is currently the top-selling game console.

CON: His perfectionist tendencies often result in games being significantly delayed and, despite the Wii's gameplay innovation, its graphics are far behind the competition.

Console preferences aside, if you're a gamer, you'll definitely agree that it's time that this guy gets recognized by Time. Sure we could all name a whole other game designers that have made games that rival his, and we all have our personal favorites but we can all agree that this guy has something iconic about him.

Given his influence, and the inspiration he's given to the gaming industry and to gamers in general, we here at QJ really wish that that "Number of Time Covers", and that "Previous Appearances on the Time 100" figure be more than zero. We feel that he deserves the inclusion.

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.

 

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.

In celebration of the exclusively held  upcoming Game Developer's Conference, a few gamers came up with a list of their most popular gaming predictions, and why it's possible, or not for these to come true. While we may never know what'll actually happen, there are still reasons to think that these predictions will come true or not, based on observations and available hearsay.
  
Here's a list of what will most likely happen.
1. Microsoft will unveil the rumored black Xbox 360 with HDMI and a 120 GB hard drive.
2. Microsoft will unveil more details about the Halo 3 multiplayer beta.
3. Internet commentators will love Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote and hate Phil Harrison's.
4. Microsoft will announce a final release date for Halo 3.
5. Activision will reveal details about the Wii Guitar Hero.

A list of those that have a 50 percent chance of happening, follows.
1. Nintendo will announce spring 2008 release dates for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy.
2. Sony will emerge with a wave of support from the press based on its products and media outreach.
3. Sony will unveil more about Killzone 2.
4. David Jaffe will get hammered and reveal more God of War III secrets.

The following predictions, however, are the least likely to happen.
1. Microsoft reduces the price on the standard white Xbox 360s after unveiling the black model.
2. Sony will announce a price drop for the PlayStation 3.
3. Nintendo announces Wii with DVD release date for the U.S.
4. Blizzard announces Diablo 3 or StarCraft 2 for 2009.

The above list of predictions, of course, reflect the analysis of one group of gamers, but we never know: those least likely to happen could actually come true. Mind you, all of these predictions will be proven or not at the GDC. Till then, this makes for a nice list of speculations. What are your predictions?

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.

I know you've seen too many "France stereotypes": this picturesque city, home to those artsy-fartsy intellectuals who make those highfalutin "isms" (structuralism, postmodernism, existentialism, etc.) a reality.

Well, that stereotype may be a tad true. After all, France is indeed home to great minds who lived "la vie boheme": there's Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Charles Baudelaire, heck I can go forever.

No doubt, France has given us some of the brilliant minds that helped shape our history, and moved our concept of art and culture to greater heights. 

Now, this country is pushing our definition of high culture further by saying that video games should be recognized as a "cultural industry, not merely existing as mere commercial products, but as a form of artistic expression".

Yep, that came from the minster of culture himself, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. Recently, this "prime minster of video games" awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (sort of like a Nobel Prize for art in France) medal to three game designers, one of which is Donkey Kong creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. Moreover, he's pushing for a video game tax break similar to French cinema, which is roughly around US$ 668 million (according to a study two years ago).

Now, this tax break could prove really helpful for most French gaming companies, who are having financial troubles. According to our source, Ubisoft's "been struggling against a high level of debt",  while Vivendi "earns most of its revenue from WoW". Of course, there are some parties who are against the said tax break, as it will lead developers "to lose touch with their consumers".

Tax break or not, this move by Donnedieu de Vabres shows that gaming is not merely a past time, but can be elevated to the pantheon of innovations in art and media. And we sure are glad that many are becoming more aware of that.