Nintendo President To Keynote At GDC 2006

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, formerly a developer at HAL Laboratory, will deliver the keynote address at the 2006 Game Developers Conference. [The GDC, like Gamasutra.com, is a product of the CMP Game Group.] Iwata's speech will be titled "Disrupting Development," and will focus on the need for innovation in video games. Iwata will stress both upcoming and already released games for the Nintendo DS during the talk, particularly Brain Age and the system's Wi-Fi Connection-enabled games. He'll also discuss Nintendo's role in the next generation of consoles, which it will enter with the release of the Revolution later in 2006, and the need for expanding the video game market beyond the current young adult set. "We are extremely honored to feature an experienced platform leader such as Satoru Iwata as a keynote speaker," said GDC director Jamil Moledina. "As Nintendo reinvents the scope of what games can be, it is ever more crucial to share their creative and market-growing philosophies with the other leaders of the game creation industry." The 2006 Game Developers Conference will be held from March 20 through 24th at the San Jose Convention Center, and will host over 300 lectures, workshops, and panels for game developers to further their skills. Iwata's keynote will be held on March 23rd, from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM.