Now that the Game Developer Conference (GDC) is over, and we are slowly getting dug out of being away for a week, it is interesting to look back at the fun things at GDC.

There were a number of hot topics at the show. First and foremost was the anticipation of next generation consoles. Many attendees were betting that Xbox 2 would be revealed, but to no avail. Instead a suite of newly packaged tools were announced. If you look at that and also look at the message that Criterion is giving about the power of middleware, it becomes clear that the complexity of making video games is becoming a huge issue. This increase in complexity is what fuels my belief that Java still has a viable future for becoming a powerfull platform for building next generation games.

One of the great features of the Java platform is increased productivity and the ability to manage complexity. If you look at some of the rumors about the specs of next generation game machines, they will have at least 4 times the memory of current machines. That's 4 times the amount content that needs to be created. Budgets are not likely to quadruple, so something needs to be more efficient, and the likely suspect is programming. We have been given an awesome opportunity to engage the game development community to help make this happen.

Another interesting topic of GDC was the role of mobile devices in games. Anyone who has listened to Chris or I speak over the past 2 years knows that we have been preaching the virtues of using the mobile device as a portal into a larger game experience. Imagine being able to monitor your auctions, chat with other players, and do character development, all from your phone. The games industry is now talking about this, and it is great because it will truly extend the game playing experience.

One of the things we were showing in our booth was a prototype game server. This server allows a number of different games to execute on the same software and hardware infrastructure. This will allow for a service provider model to be possible in the games industry. It makes it possible to ammoritize the cost of hosting games across many games. We can have a few games with a few thousand players instead of having just one game with close to one hundered thousand players. I don't want this to become a big ad :^), but it was gratifying to hear so many people in the games industry embracing this concept. For an industry that prides itself on IP, this is a big step.

This is a great time of the year. We get a great dose of game developer stuff at GDC, and then right around the corner, we get the games retail spectacle known as E3. Is this a great job or what?