The minds behind GDC have decided to take their GDC Online conference and rebrand it as GDC Next. This is the last year for GDC Online, and this conference will take place in Austin, Texas from October 9th to the 11th. GDC organizers have also created a special conference for App Developers: the creatively named App Developers Conference. The ADC will highlight developments in app technology, which likely means they’ll show the new shapes apps can come in. Ever since Apple laid claim to squares with rounded corners, developers have had to get creative, so get ready to see a lot of circular, triangular, and trapezoidal apps. Get them while they last, before Apple claims they invented polygons. The ADC will also give developers a chance to learn about changes in app creation, business, and marketing outside of gaming. “We’re delighted to announce our next generation of events dedicated to both games and apps”, said Simon Carless, EVP, UBM Tech. “As the boundaries blur between games and other content across both hardware and software, we’re delighted to be expanding our Fall GDC event onto the West Coast, and adding a whole new event showcasing learnings from the entire app ecosystem.”
GDC Next will focus on smartphone and tablet, social, independent, cloud, and other new venues in gaming. I feel like the division between GDC and GDC Next can be broken down as such: people who are making a lot of money while their business model slowly crumbles, and people who are starting to make a lot of money while people from the old industry try to latch on to their business. They just threw everything that isn’t AAA into the GDC Next camp. Shouldn’t independent games get their own conference, or at least their own conference category?
GDC Next and ADC will both take place from November 5th to the 7th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
