SONY Computer Entertainment America today announced details of its presence at the 2007 Game Developers Conference (GDC), with Phil Harrison, president of Worldwide Studios, SONY Computer Entertainment, delivering the opening keynote speech. GDC is the world’s largest conference dedicated to the support and promotion of game development, running March 5th-9th, 2007, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

Phil Harrison’s keynote presentation, Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Videogames, will kick-off the conference on March 7th, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. PST. The speech will focus on the key components of Game 3.0 - community, user-generated content, collaboration and commerce - all highlighted through live demonstrations of previously un-announced services and games for PLAYSTATION3. “This is a very exciting time to be part of the game development community. Advancements in technology combined with new consumer trends mean the industry has a great opportunity to create engaging new entertainment experiences for the world,” said Phil Harrison, president of Worldwide Studios, SONY Computer Entertainment. “I believe we're at the threshold of a new era in creative game development that’s destined to drive our industry growth through the next decade or more.”

Following the keynote presentation, the SONY Computer Entertainment America booth will be a central focus at GDC as the company introduces new development tools and technologies designed specifically for PLAYSTATION3 and the PLAYSTATION Network, as well as the PlayStation Portable handheld entertainment system. The SONY Computer Entertainment America booth – Booth #410, West Hall – will offer visitors a sneak-peek at:

• Tuner for PLAYSTATION3 – Developed by SN Systems, a subsidiary of SONY Computer Entertainment Inc., the Tuner is a profiling tool that enables developers to quickly highlight bottlenecks and conflicts in source code, helping them improve code performance. The Tuner is a software application, so there is no special hardware required, which enables developers to create high performance games with less guesswork.
• Unreal Engine 3 – Epic’s Next-Generation game engine technology targets a diverse set of genres from fighting games to shooters to Massive Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games.
• High-Level Graphics Package – PSSG (a PLAYSTATION3 optimized cross-platform graphics engine and tool-chain) production-ready extensible scene-graph framework that is written to take advantage of the PLAYSTATION3’s strengths.
• Pioneering profiling and analysis tools and physics technologies.
• Developing with Linux on PLAYSTATION3.
• Demonstration of downloadable titles from the PLAYSTATION Network, such as flOw, Blast Factor and Calling all Cars.

Additionally, SONY Computer Entertainment developers, engineers, and other specialists will be hosting a variety of educational panels in an effort to support and encourage the creative innovation of developers and publishers:

Monday, March 5:

• 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.: E. Daniel Arey, Director, Naughty Dog, SONY Computer Entertainment America, Interactive Storytelling Boot Camp, Room 3011, West Hall.
• 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.: Vlad Stamate, Graphics Software Engineer, SONY Computer Entertainment America, Core Techniques and Algorithims in Shader Programming, Room 3011, West Hall.
• 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.: Dan Bardino, Audio Manager, SONY Computer Entertainment Europe; Sergio Pimentel, Music Licensing and A&R Manager, SONY Computer Entertainment Europe; Jason Page, Audio Manager, SONY Computer Entertainment Europe, Audio Boot Camp, Room 3006, West Hall.
• 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: John Hight, Director of Production, SONY Computer Entertainment America, Console/PC Distribution Gatekeepers, (part of Independent Games Summit), Room 3018, West Hall.
• 2:30-3:30 p.m.: Jenova Chen, flOw creator, ThatGameCompany, Innovation in Indie Games, (part of Independent Games Summit), Room 3018, West Hall.

Tuesday, March 6:

• 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.: Christer Ericson, Director of Tools and Technology, SONY Computer Entertainment America, Physics for Games Programmers, Room 3011, West Hall.
• 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.: Bill Dalton, Technical Director, Austin Studio, SONY Online Entertainment, Large-Scale Engineering for Online and Offline Games, Room 3009, West Hall.
• 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.: John Needham, CFO and SVP of Finance, SONY Online Entertainment, Downloadable Casual Games on the Console, (part of Casual Games Summit 201), Room 3020, West Hall.
• 5:00-6:00 p.m.: David Jaffe, Creative Director, SONY Santa Monica Studios, Building the Future of Indie Games, (part of Independent Games Summit), Room 3018, West Hall.

Wednesday, March 7:

• 2:30 -3:30 p.m.: Gabe Ahn (Field Developer Support Engineer SONY Computer Entertainment America), COLLADA in console game production Room 3004, West Hall.
• 4:00 -5:00 p.m.: Bruce D'Amora, Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM, Control your Performance Monsters: Cell Programming Tips and Techniques, Room 3004, West Hall.

Thursday, March 8:

• 9:00 -10:00 a.m.: Jason Page, SONY Computer Entertainment, Michael Kelly, SONY Computer Entertainment Europe, PS3 Audio: More Than Extra Channels, Room 3006, West Hall.
• 2:30 -3:30 p.m.: Dave Murrant, Sound Design Manager, SONY Computer Entertainment America, PS3: Audio Development From the Trenches, Room 3008, West Hall.
• 2:30 -3:30 p.m.: Mark Cerny, Cerny Games, Jon Olick, Lead Programmer, Naughty Dog, David Simpson, Lead Programmer, Naughty Dog, RSX Best Practices, Room 3001, West Hall.
• 4:00- 5:00 p.m.: Chris Carty, Principal Programmer, SONY Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Nicolas Serres, Principal Programmer, SONY Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Real-World SPU Usage, Room 3010, West Hall.
• 4:00- 5:00 p.m.: Tsutomu Kouno, Japan Studio, SONY Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, A LocoRoco Postmortem: Making Happiness into Gameplay, Room 135, North Hall.

Friday, March 9:

• 9:00 a.m.- 10:00 a.m.: Mark Teare, Character Artist, Factor5, Cross Application Asset Creation for Lair: From Characters to Clouds, Room 135 North Hall.
• 12:00- 1:00 p.m.: Scott Kirkland, Technical Director, Evolution Studios, Applied Physics: MotorStorm, Room 3001, West Hall.

Of course, as ever, Electronic Articles will bring you all the latest news from the GDC, as it happens.

Kev J.

06/03/07

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