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This is a report on GDC so we’re going to start with the show’s keynote speaker, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata, then quickly cover the poorly kept secret of the iPad 2 announcement – there was excitement there though – then back to GDC.

GDC Keynote
While we may have been “Mortal Enemies” back when he was a kid in the industry and we were promoting Atari, the years have been kind to him! Heck he’s survived in the game industry for 25 years and that says a lot for anyone! As the industry changed from game systems to mobile to social media he’s learned a lot from the mistakes of others and his own. Bake in the early years it was all about technically superior, adrenaline kicking in and heart throbbing games. Only an idiot would roll out a family friendly set of games like Wii.

What do we know? But he noted that he learned well from the gaming master Shigeru Miyamoto. Primarily that content is king! Over the years he came to understand that the games must appeal universally across all ages, nationalities, sexes because game play, especially in today’s social environment is even more important. He pointed out to the attendees that a game must appeal to a person the first time he or she begins to play and have the levels, expertise designed in to constantly keep the player excited and involved. “When this is achieved,” he noted, “the game will sell itself. Then you sit back and determine what is needed to keep the game fresh and exciting.”  Iwata recalled that in the early days games were generalized to handle programming, art, sound design. Today there is a stratification of these areas which has its cost emotionally and financially. Iwata believes the day when one person can understand the personality of the entire game is long gone and that highly skilled specialists are necessary to optimize user enjoyment. The problem and challenge for Iwata is to ensure that everyone involved understands not only his/her role but also the overall plan and strategy of the game so everyone can develop in unity. He pointed out that today some of the craftsmanship of game development has been diluted and complicated production has put game development costs up with those of major movie releases. This makes it difficult for the next master game creator to emerge! During his keynote he expressed concern that the concept/idea of the game has value and that often gets lost somewhere in the long, tedious process. He explained the obvious – developer’s hours are too long, stress is too high, feeling of true competition is lost and the individual becomes a pawn in the larger process. Not by design or plan he noted but rather it just happens. Iwata commented that there are only a few hundred titles on the major dedicated game systems and tens of thousands of titles on the major mobile app libraries. Referring to Screen Digest’s game study, he pointed out that 92 percent of the popular mobile content games are free.

“Freenomics is a rotten way to turn a profit and pay the bills, “ he noted sadly. It’s little wonder that game development is drowning in volume rather than quality. He called for the mobile, social platform producers to do something to motivate, encourage high-value game software rather than cheap stuff. Iwata felt most of these platform owners were only looking to fill their inventory, library with volume, not quality/value. He emphasized that “as we produce value, we must protect that value!” By emphasizing value the industry and developers can really invest in innovations for the industry and the consuming public.

Of course during his keynote speech he also snuck in the introduction of the new Super Mario game for the 3DS. But unlike most keynote presentations he didn’t bore the audience with senseless self company/product promotion. It really was subtle, tasteful. And for those who were dwelling on his earlier advice of how to add value to their technology, their ideas, their passion…you probably missed the sneak announcement! There were a lot of other Nintendo announcements at the show but since everyone in the venue was wondering what was going to be announced…next door!

Steve’s iPad 2
Everyone knew the new iPad 2 was going to be announced and there were more pre-guesses as to what it would/would not include that the actual announcement (as with most of Apple’s orchestrated marketing events) was almost anti-climatic. Yeah almost! If you were Valley savvy running over to get into the auditorium for the Apple event you noticed an Astor Martin sitting nicely in one of the parking spaces. OMG…Ya Think???? Yes there aren’t many folks that can drop that kind of bread and Jobs is one of them!!!

When Steve strolled onto the stage with his belt and shoes matching you would have thought that everyone’s favorite rock star had arrived. It was a standing ovation and you know what? He looked like he enjoyed it…and he needed/deserved it (and no we’re not Apple diehards!) Jobs took more shots at the “second” tier tablet players with no mercy. Everyone else is and will be dissecting all of the many new features/shortcomings but this was one of Apple’s finest moments. We felt it was a little unkind to take shots at the 100+ tablets that are being announced when the company has such a clear market leadership and they’ve done a lot to reinforce that leadership for the next few years.

What? Well the venerable touch screen that is almost the heart and soul of the tablet. Apple has already locked up by consignment for an estimated 60% of the world supply for the next couple of years. That means everyone else will have to fight over the remaining 40 percent of capacity at some cost…bet it won’t be cheap. No one takes that into consideration when they say all of those tablets are going to flood the market and kill notebooks.

Sure you can surf, play with your photos/videos/content, do some modest typing and what the heck in the right light even read a book. But real, real work? We’ll keep our notebook…and our smartphone…and eventually our tablet (we aren’t saying what kind…yet!!!) There’s no need to rehash the new features, capabilities because unless you live under a rock you’re going to be inundated with all of the wonders for the next MONTH!!!!

Yes it’s a neat little unit. It went on a diet so it’s a little thinner…has a more powerful processor…doesn’t have a USB port, still runs 3G (come on who in the **** has 4G anyway?) In the U.S. the majors – AT&T, Verizon – will have the units starting March 11. By March 25 they’ll be rolling it out in over 25 countries – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Hungary, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, new Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK. That’s huge! Nuff said. Check your local papers for time, channel, details!!!! Oh yeah…still 10 hours of use time. Starting at $499 (and change). Despite the fact that Steve is the front man for the organization, Apple has an in-depth team of very good, very strong executives and possibly because he needed the rest or more likely he wanted to show off his talent he set up his key people to discuss all the sexy features. But at the end he again took control of the stage and had his team stand up in the audience and they also received a good round of applause. Of course he could have thanked Nintendo’s Iwata for setting up the game industry for him and maybe even timing the end of his session so he wouldn’t run too much over but…

Reflecting
Having heard from the two executives, a member of the Nintendo development team and one of the GDC attendees talked about how the lay of the land for game development kept shifting. Bottom line is there looks to be room for both of the companies in the marketplace. When the noise died down, Nintendo again took to the what’s new/educational platform and after announcing a number of new 3D solutions that will be available this year. Then there were a series of major/minor sessions:
– AMD rolled out new open source solutions for Maya 2011 as well as a number of collaborative activities and programs (translation nice but nothing earthshaking)
– EA also made a series of mobile and social relationship announcements which should boost opportunities for game developers and players. They acquired Chllingo and Playfish which will open developer opportunities especially for people interested in developing games for the Facebook social media front.

One thing this year’s GDC showed is that there are no safe harbors for developers with fantastic ideas. Platforms such as Sony’s PlayStation or Microsoft’s Xbox or Nintendo’s play system and portable have their strengths, weaknesses/good points, bad points. Social media as open and friendly as that may sound like a quiet, refreshing walk in the park but you gotta understand even in the park bad things can happen! Social media and let’s be honest we’re sorta talking about the Facebook platform wasn’t formed to be a bunch of nice guys. But then they never told their people, “do no evil.” Social gaming may even be good for the game developer – let’s say that for sake of argument – but it may not be good for a certain number/type of people out there who play the games. It’s no better, no worse than watching soap operas and at least you’re honing your eye/hand coordination and stimulating your mind so that’s a good thing. But anything can be carried too far including hanging around your keyboard waiting for emails, texting on your smartphone, watching YouTube videos or well just about anything. The key for the game developer is that he/she has to constantly work to add new features, new ideas, new depths to keep the player interested, excited, involved. That takes one heckofa lot of innovation and work. Who knows game development perfection may even be addictive !!!!