GDC 2013 highlights new PlayStation 4, Oculus Rift, Project SHIELD vendor sessions

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting major new vendor sessions, including Sony on PlayStation 4 development and design, Mozilla on 'fast and awesome' HTML5 games, NVIDIA on its Project SHIELD handheld device, and Oculus VR on diving into virtual reality with Oculus Rift. These sessions all take place during GDC's Main Conference to be held Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. A month after announcing the PlayStation 4, Sony Computer Entertainment America will present at GDC 2013 an 'Overview of PS4 for Developers.' Attendees can expect to hear about "the technology from a development standpoint as well as from the design side" for this next-generation console releasing later this year. Oculus VR will present 'Running the VR Gauntlet -- VR Ready, Are You?' with chief software architect Michael Antonov and co-founder Nate Mitchell. They will share what they have learned from building their new VR game platform, what developers need to know about supporting it, and how to overcome VR technical challenges. In 'NVIDIA Project SHIELD and Tegra 4: Redefining AFK,' senior software engineers Andrew Edelsten and Paul Hodgson will share tips and tricks for targeting the Project SHIELD handheld device, a run down of the latest NVIDIA development tools, and Tegra 4's relevant new GPU features. Finally, in 'Fast and Awesome HTML5 Games' presented by Mozilla, senior researcher Alon Zakai and engineering director Vladimir Vukicevic will talk about techniques for quick JavaScript execution and easy porting of existing titles. The two will also show what HTML5 currently offers for graphics, multithreading, networking, and audio in games. These talks are part of a bulked-up set of vendor-supported sessions available to all conference pass holders - the full set are listed in GDC 2013's scheduler, with times now available. GDC still offers over $100 discounts to select pass purchases made by March 20th, at 11:59pm EST, with prices increasing for onsite registration. GDC 2013 itself will take place March 25-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information on GDC 2013, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.