Experience the Game Developers Conference

2001 March 20-24, 2001, San Jose, CA. One of the GDC's highlights is a panel discussion:

Consoles vs. PCs: Is the PC Really Dead?

Ed Fries, VP of Game Publishing-Microsoft
Bing Gordon, Chief Creative Officer & Executive VP-Electronic Arts
Phil Harrison, Senior VP of Development-Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Jason Rubin, President-Naughty Dog
Kelly Flock, President-Sony Online Entertainment
Bruce Shelley, Senior Designer-Ensemble Studios
Demis Hassibis, Chairman & CEO-Elixis Studios

Moderated by: Trip Hawkins, CEO-3DO

"With each advent of next generation console technologies, the death knell sounds for the PC. Is the PC really dead? Have all the PC developers gone console? Come hear industry leaders debate the merits of developing for consoles vs. PCs and what the future holds."

Another is a talk, "The Digital Distribution Revolution: Lessons Learned From Napster" by Rob Glaser, Chairman & CEO-RealNetworks, Inc.

"Using the Internet as a distribution platform for games has long been considered the Holy Grail for developers and publishers, yet has largely failed to materialize. The past year has seen the market for digital distribution of PC games finally take flight due to a number of game development advances and infrastructure related improvements. The coming year promises to have this distribution medium explode with the same fury that digital music experienced from the popularization of MP3 and grass roots growth of Napster and other music client technologies. Several companies are pioneering the digital distribution of games with great success and the promise of new platforms including the PS2 and the Xbox with connectivity and hard drives will accelerate the momentum. We will look at the creative and technical challenges of this new medium as well as how money will be made."