GDC 2009 Attendance Exceeds 17,000, Dates For 2010 Confirmed

Author: by Staff

The 2009 Game Developers Conference, held last week at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, saw attendance of more than 17,000. That figure was released by conference organizer Think Services (also Gamasutra's parent company), which pointed to the results as indicative of the overall industry's fundamental strength. "The success of this past week in San Francisco proves the resilience of the games industry," said event director Meggan Scavio. "It is a testament to the spirit of our more than 20 year old conference and community, and evidence of video games' continued evolution into a mainstream form of entertainment, that the various constituents of the industry were able come together at GDC as they did [last] year." Those 17,000-plus industry professionals attended more than 500 sessions lectures, summits, tutorials, and panels, saw keynotes from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, and witnessed the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards and 11th Annual Independent Games Festival. Despite the cost-cutting going on in many parts of the industry, attendance exceeded its 2007 total and was only slightly shy of 2008's record attendance of 18,000. Also confirmed were the dates for next year's show, once again slated to take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Game Developers Conference 2010 will be held from Tuesday, March 9 to Saturday, March 13, 2010 -- marking a change from the typical GDC Monday to Friday schedule. In an interview in February, Scavio explained that the change is due to booking-related issues. The Moscone Center venue itself is booked for GDC through at least 2015.