GDC08 Round Up

MONDAY

User-generated content comes to N-Gage
Nokia launches Yamake customisable minigames

Scaleform joins Epic’s IPP & Korea’s Dragonfly is latest UE3 licensee
More licensees support Epic Games’ engine

Mobile games market hasn’t slowed down, says Guillemot
Gameloft boss opens GDC Mobile wil rallying cry to his industry

PlayFirst CEO says casual games industry needs more innovation
‘Casual gamers want new ideas’ says John Welch

Ex-Naughty Dogs create new studio
Big Red Button to make original, accessible cross-platform games

Microsoft unveils XNA Live Arcade extensions
Inside track on what XNA devs can do with Xbox Live Arcade

PopCap to make multiplayer mobile games for SNAP
Firms Chuzzle is first to hit Nokia platform

Net-Z, Rendez-Vous and Spark now support MacOS X
Quazal wants a bite of Apple’s platforms

New games outfit plans to make games devised by best-selling authors
Thriller will cater to espionage/action genre

Stainless and Mind Control signed for Magic The Gathering games
XBLA, PC and Mac games on the way

TUESDAY

Square Enix forms new mobile studio
Japanese firm to make more wireless titles

Bill Gates unveils free development tools for students
Microsoft boss backs move to give Visual Studio and XNA Creators club access away to academia

id chooses IGA for in-game ads
US independent signs up game marketing firm for Quake Live

Nokia’s Vanjoki on ‘the new paradigm for gameplay’ offered in mobile games
Second GDC Mobile keynote talks about tech-savvy consumers

Autodesk to buy Kynogon
One of the biggest technology announcements at the show sees the 3D software firm enter the middleware space

Emergent celebrates 2007 success
Business is booming for Gamebryo firm

Five new modules for xaitment
AI technology expanded

HeroEngine beefs up
More good news for online tech

‘The PC market is not dying’ says newly-formed PC Gaming Alliance
Group supported by Activision, Epic and Microsoft champions PC games sector

WEDNESDAY

Havok confirms Cloth and Destruction tools
Havok suite upgraded to 5.5 as well

May 12th launch for US WiiWare & Frontier unveils first WiiWare title
Nintendo sets out mandate for distribution platform and names Lost Winds as be a launch game for it

NaturalMotion upgrades Morpheme to 1.3
Improvements for animation tool

THQ signs Blue Fang for new DS, Wii and PC IP
Publisher increases charge for new IP via deal with independent

Audiokinetic unveils Wwise Motion
New tool to merge sound design with character movement

Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 upgrades & Nurien to make UE3-powered virtual world
Popular engine shows beefed up technology and boasts another licensee

Softimage launches new community site
Softimage|Net to help artists connect and share

Molyneux aims for casual players with Fable 2 co-op mode & Lionhead unveils cross communication XBLA-to-Fable 2 game
Peter Molyneux on the latest developments for his next title

Microsoft unveils Xbox Live Community Games & Zune goes gaming with XNA & Seven community-made games arrive on Xbox Live
‘You Tube for games’ style platform finally confirmed and XNA code can be migrated to portable music player Zune

THURSDAY

Havok goes free on PC
New offer makes middleware available to hobbyists and academics, too

Babel expands to provide MMO services
Outsourcing and localisation firm expands offer

EA signs Starbreeze for classic franchise revamp
Another deal for EA Partners but this one using owned IP

"Developers need to prepare for exponential tech growth"
Alternative keynote from futurologist Ray Kurzweil looks to the future

Dave Jones unveils APB
Realtime Worlds man and GTA and Crackdwon creator takes lid off first MMO

FRIDAY

Nintendo fleshes out WiiWare ethos & ‘Pay & Play’ service headed to Nintendo WiFi Connection & How WiiWare challenged Square Enix to rethink teams
More on Nintendo’s efforts to expand its audience and ‘disrupt development’

2009’s GDC dates set
Ready to do it all again? Next year’s event runs from March 23rd to 27th