GDC 2013 Day 3: Engines and awards

An interview with PS4 chief architect Mark Cerny, Konami's FOX engine for Metal Gear Solid 5, Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for browsers, and DICE's Frostbite 3 for Battlefield 4 mark day 3 of GDC 2013. The IGF and Choice Awards concluded the evening of the first day of the Main Conference. GDC 2013 is running Monday, March 25th through Friday, March 29th at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Gamasutra is onsite to cover the event in its entirety, and the following are the third-day, can't-miss highlights: - In an interview with Mark Cerny, the PlayStation 4's lead architect offered an inside look into the upcoming console and explained how he began the process of designing Sony's new system -- with developers' desires. - Firefox developer Mozilla has revealed a partnership with Epic Games, which will bring the latter's Unreal Engine 3 to web browsers very soon. - Although it was previously thought that the next installment in the Battlefield series would use DICE's Frostbite 2 engine, the company has revealed that the Frostbite 3 engine will debut later this year. - Kojima Productions revealed Metal Gear Solid 5, showed off its photorealistic FOX engine, and confirmed a brand-new game development office in Los Angeles. - Elsewhere, a roundtable responded to 10 arguments against games. Panelists Daniel Greenberg of the IGDA, Professor Ian Bogost, and Mike Capps, formerly of Epic, addressed how games have been attacked by the press and legislators for causing real-world violence. - What do video games need before we can have our own Shakespeare? The future of game narrative lies in building tech that will allow video games to "listen" to the player, said designer and evangelist Jesse Schell. The evening ended with the 15th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards and the 13th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Richard Hofmeier's realistic, food cart worker sim Cart Life won three awards, including the Grand Prize Seumas McNally Award. thatgamecompany's emotionally-charged Journey took home six of the 11 GDCAs, including Game of the Year. These are just a handful of the notable GDC 2103 lectures covered to date. All related GDC news can be found on the special Gamasutra GDC coverage page, which is being updated regularly throughout the week. Those interested in purchasing passes to GDC 2013 may still do so onsite. For more information on GDC 2013, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.