GDC 2017 debuts talks on the state of VR and the design of League of Legends

Now that registration is open for the 2017 Game Developers Conference, the largest event for game industry professionals in the world, organizers would like to let you know about some of the very first cutting-edge talks that have been lined up for the big show!

After a panoply of hype, 2016 was the year high-quality consumer VR became a reality. Soon, in his GDC talk "VR Market 2017: Data and Insights," EEDAR VP Patrick Walker will present data and insights from the first 12 months of consumer VR and the launch of multiple major VR platforms.

What's worked and what hasn't worked in the first 12 months for Oculus, the Vive, and the soon-to-launch PlayStation VR? What are the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of both early adopters and gamers who are still on the fence? What do these answers tell them about the path to mainstream VR? These questions will be explored through consumer and sales data from a variety of sources, including EEDAR's monthly global consumer tracker, PlayerPulse, and the EEDAR game database.

The business of eSports has also been booming these past few years, due in no small part to the success of Riot Games' League of Legends. The company's own Anthony Leung will speak to how Riot has scaled the game to keep pace with demand in a GDC 2017 talk titled "Scaling 'League of Legends' Development: The Strategic Work System Explained."

Attendees should make time to check it out, because they'll receive an extremely candid look at League of Legends' practices for strategy and work alignment. The session's story style will include failures, solutions, and continuing challenges. Expect to leave with models to establish a shared strategic vocabulary -- and a scaled development system that works for large product teams!

And of course, this is just the beginning -- conference officials look forward to announcing more GDC 2017 sessions spanning a diverse array of game industry issues in the months ahead.

For now, don't miss the opportunity to save money by registering early -- the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 25, 2017. GDC 2017 itself will take place February 27th - March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

For more information on GDC 2017, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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