Newell will be on hand at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit to deliver a keynote address, which I presume will have something to do with Valve, Steam, or some combination thereof. The key thing to remember here is that Gabe isn't one to mince words, and his mouth is big enough for both of his feet, as well as the feet of several innocent passersby. Should be a hoot!

“Gabe Newell and Valve have become a force for innovation in gaming over the past a decade, creating some of the best-selling games of all time and a ground-breaking platform for PC entertainment,” said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. “His perspective and vision of the games industry are a welcome addition to this year’s D.I.C.E. Summit, and will greatly contribute to the high-profile line-up.”

Check out the entire updated roster of D.I.C.E. speakers below, all of whom shall say some things while they are there. Possibly things regarding stuff.

• Dan Bilson, THQ.
• Chris Cao, Sony Online Entertainment
• N'Gai Croal, Newsweek
• Michael Denny, Sony Corp. EU
• Anita Frazier, NPD Research
• Julianne Greer, The Escapist
• Lars Gustavsson, D.I.C.E. Studios/EA
• Michael Haigh, SCE Worldwide Studios
• Mona Hamilton, Capcom
• Rich Hilleman, Electronic Arts
• Todd Howard, Bethesda Studios
• Geoff Keighley, Spike TV
• Alex Laurent, LucasArts/ILM
• Ralph Osterhout, Serial Inventor
• David Perry, Acclaim Entertainment
• Ted Price, Insomniac Games
• J. Paul Raines, Gamestop
• John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts
• Seth Schiesel, New York Times
• Bruce Shelley, Ensemble Studios
• Mike Snider, USA Today
• Jun Takeuchi, Capcom
• Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games

On October 9th at midday, Schappert will present his keynote address "A Canvas for the World” which will apparently lay out how the Xbox 360 will bring people together to enjoy "the next wave of interactive entertainment experiences."

No, we don't really know what that means either —- but we bet it is pretty flippin' important. Who knows? Maybe MS are on a roll - by this time next year there could be an Xbox Elite in every self-respecting Japanese home.

Tokyo Game Show - John Schappert Keynote Address [Gamerscore Blog]

Levine, compatriot and family (including in his parents) are actually sitting right next to me. They're all very nice people. Hit up the jump to follow along as Levine wows us.

Taylor will also be appearing with Dr. Michael Capps and David Perry at a "Best Selling Games" panel on Tuesday of the conference, where they will discuss...best selling games? Hey, at least I gave you a pretty trailer to look at.

Chris Taylor to Present the "Making of Demigod" at GCDC

LEIPZIG, Germany - July 29, 2008 - The organizer of the GC Developers Conference (GCDC) today announced that industry legend Chris Taylor will be the keynote speaker for Wednesday, August 20 at this year's event. Under the title, "The Struggle for Independence and the Making of Demigod," he will address the challenges of developing games today. Moreover, together with Dr. Michael Capps and David Perry, the other two keynote speakers of GCDC 2008, he will participate in a panel discussion on "Best Selling Games" on Tuesday. GCDC takes place prior to GC - Games Convention in Leipzig, August 18-20, 2008.

Chris Taylor will reminisce about his 20-year career in the interactive entertainment industry covering his budding years and the experiences that inspired him to form his own independent games studio. He will talk about how the industry has changed over the years, and how he has had to adapt his own mindset and the direction of his company to meet its new challenges. Taylor will also speak about the difficulties faced when delivering new, truly innovative games versus the typical sequels and derivative works currently plaguing the industry.

"Expect a surreal journey into my bizarre and twisted mind," said Taylor, adding, "Please bring your sense of humor with you."

For the past 20 years, Taylor has been one of the game industry's most imaginative and dynamic visionaries. The creator of the first true next-generation RTS game, Total Annihilation, has a well deserved reputation as an innovator who is able to push both technology and gameplay to their limits.

Taylor is the CEO and Creative Director of Gas Powered Games (GPG), which has released the Dungeon Siege series, Supreme Commander, and its expansion, Forged Alliance. In 2008, GPG will unleash its newest action/RPG, Space Siege, and in 2009, the company will launch the innovative action/RTS game Demigod.

"Our goal is to present keynote speakers that inspire our attendees, while providing valuable insight into the changing landscape of the games industry," said Frank Sliwka, project director of GCDC. "Chris Taylor's participation takes the already content rich conference program to a higher level and makes GCDC an absolute must-attend event."

Further information about the schedule and the speakers of GCDC can be found at: http://www.gcdc.eu.

Hirai went on to apologize for the delay, insisting that the service must spend more time in development so gamers around the world can experience the game when it is ready.

If there's one thing Wil Wheaton knows how to do, it's get a reaction from a crowd. Whether he's inciting the ire of millions as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek or kicking off PAX 07 with his keynote speech, he never fails to make an impression. He makes his way onto the stage with dramatic musical accompaniment, citing the above line to an adoring crowd. After railing through every gamer cliche' that one could imagine and dropping a few f-bombs along the way, he begins recounting his days as a young nerd playing video games in the local arcade. He compares his generation's love of the old arcade to this generations attachment to World of Warcraft and Xbox Live. These, he says, are the arcades of today. The crowd is in the palm of his hand as he moves on from arcade classics to home consoles, hitting every classic title along the way and filling everyone's heads with nostalgic memories of the golden age of gaming.

Moving on to the present, Wheaton ruminates on the Wii and how it brought his love of gaming back to the fore. He sees the Wii and games like Guitar Hero as social tools and new ways of bringing families together. He knows that making sure what his kids play and experience in games is his responsibility and no one else's, finally giving a another big fuck you to Mr. Thompson and his ilk, whipping the crowd into a frenzy once again.

His speech is equal parts love letter to geekdom and a call for gamers to rise up in force and show the world that we can and will be taken seriously. The rapturous audience is duly impressed and indeed rise to the occasion and their feet, sending Wheaton off with a well deserved standing ovation.

During today's keynote Shigeru Miyamoto announced a new channel that would allow people to compare their Miis in a popularity contest.

Today people are so taken with the Miis around the world. Im working on a new Mii channel.

With this channel we are going to let people compare the Miis they created in a popularity contest.

And you will be allowed to do this with people from around the world.

No pictures, dates or details were announced during the keynote, but I'm sure we will be hearing more down the line. Brian Crecente

LiveBlogging Nintendo [Kotaku]

Earlier today during a keynote Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Super Mario Galaxy would be coming out this year.

Miyamoto said that Super Mario Galaxy explores some of the things first seen in Mario 128. The brief video he played, showed Mario flying through the air, running around small planets and other rotating surfaces and climbing vines from one planet to another, with the gravity flipping as he changed locations.

He ended that part of his speech by saying: "You'll be able to play Super Mario Galaxy this year."

Liveblogging Nintendo [Kotaku]

We're at the Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto keynote. It's starting any minute now.

I just spoke with Reggie and asked him if there were going to be any fireworks during the keynote. He said "a couple." He's the second one to tell me that today's keynote isn't going to be quite as bland as people initially expected. Hit the jump to follow along. Brian Crecente

Niero from Destructoid just stopped by and starting bowing to us. Mike M pretended to unzip his pants. Not an auspicious start to the event.

That and Chobot is dancing around. Odd.

The music's quite nice. We're now 15 minutes past when it was supposed to start. No announcements, though I see movement behind the curtain up there.

I just ran over and talked to Phil Harrison, after reading in our comments that he's here in the front row. I asked how he got the choice seat. "Membership has its privileges," he said.

"I hear something might happen here today, what do you think? Are you looking forward to it?"

I'm just happy that I'm able to sit here and don't have to be up there."

I like Phil, he seems like a nice guy.

They just told us to quiet it down. Ah, here comes Jamil Moledina.

He's introducing Shigeru Miyamoto, pointing out that while he's called the Steven Spielberg of gaming it probably doesn't do him justice. It should be the other way around.

Moledina says its time to present a different kind of keynote a personal experience with Miyamoto.

The lights when down and Mii Creator came up on the screen and here comes the real thing, standing on the stage with Bill Trinen and Moledina like he is on the Wii.

"I can't believe its been eight years since I've had a chance to talk to you, you haven't aged a bit, just like me."

Miyamoto is going to use the Wii and the photo channel to do his presentation. Screw power point.

He's going back to the beginning to Donkey Kong. He's showing pictures of kids playing games, of him playing Super Mario World wearing one of those skinny black ties.

Now he's talking about the top games of 1998. Top of the list was Goldeneye 007.

"Within a few years, something changed."

He shows the top games in 2004, topped by GTA.

He said the questions asked of him changed too. People started asking what sort of effect games were having on people.

"Even as sales went up, our reputation went down."

This was a period when Nintendo and myself personally found ourselves at a crossroads.

All of this leads me to my topic today, the essence of any game designer. The creative vision, as well as Nintendo's vision.

He's talking about the Nintendo difference now.

First is the Expanded Audience.

Shigeru says he has his own way of determining how good a game will be. He calls it the Wife-o-meter. It measures the interest level of his wife.

He's talking about how as games became more casual, his wife became more interested in gaming.

Now he's talking up Nintendogs and talking about the fact that why his wife loves cats, he loves dogs.

Now he's talking about his dog Pick.

"Getting back to my point today, this relates to moving up the wife-o-meter. I was watching our dog friends and my wife. Maybe if we could get these people and turn them into game players we could expand the user base. When I eventually showed (Nintendogs) to my wife, she finally started to look at video games in a different way. And then came Brain Age, this is the game that turned her into a true gamer."

Shiggy says that on Valentine's Day he returned home and heard the sounds of the Wii. Initially thought she had waited up for him, but in fact was just casting votes on the Everybody Votes Channel. It meant she had decided to use the Wii on her own.

"This is a big event in my house, It would have been more expected for me to come home and find Donkey Kong eating at our table."

Now his wife brags about being able to beat him on the second Brain Age and she's always playing Wii Sports and making Miis.

"I think this is something that is very lucky for me. She is learning to create things. I think this is her first step to game design."

The second key element to Nintendo's vision is the company's devotion to the game industry. They don't have to worry about diversification or expanding beyond this market.

The entire company, both on the hardware and software side, only think about game design and game hardware design, he says.

Shigeru points out he's had a hand in designing every controller for Nintendo since they got in the business. Which means it was easier for him to work with the team. Those creations, he says, were all group cooperations.

With the creation of the Wii they had different teams working on different elements of both the design and the ideas behind the new console.

Now he is showing off a bunch of different controller prototypes. Finally, they decided on the tv remote-like controller. That final version, he said, was the result of a lot of collaboration between many different teams.

At one point we even wondered with the recent advances in portable gaming, did we even need to have a device that connected to a TV at all.

As a controller the Wii remote does a lot of what I have always dreamed of as a designer.

Nintendo definition of technical progress often focuses on new interfaces.

He's showing off the museum that Ashcraft visited for us awhile back for ancient playing cards in Japan. Ash did a great feature on it and the technology for us awhile back.

Shigeru said he was put in charge of producing http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/shigureden-poetry-readings-151079.php">the interface.

Now he's talking us through the museum, something Ash did quite well. Here's Ash's original story with tons of pictures. Essentially you use a DS to move through the museum and interact with it.

This bring us to the third element: Risk.

None of our risks have ever rivaled the design of the Wii.

:"Frankly the Gamecube was just a half step toward working with a wider audience."

He says that while they were fairly secure about taking the risk, they weren't sure if it was worth taking until E3 and the reaction they got there.

But corporations don't make video games, people do.

My primary focus in development are not the individual pieces, he says, instead he concentrates on the core element of the game. He does that by thinking about the face of the gamers, what they will look while they play his games.

Now he's taking us to MyFirstTouchDS, which shows people's first experience with the Nintendo DS. He's showing us one of a little girl giggling manically as she plays. Now an older person laughing away as he plays.

"Not only is the person playing the game being happy, but the person around them are getting excited and that's what I've always wanted as a designer."

"In my personal case the feeling I strive for is positive. So I keep this image of the person playing the game in my mind until the game is finished. If I think that we have lost our way in a game design, then I'm going to take that risk and, as people say, up-end the tea table."

"When we are creating a game, we have to force ourselves to make the game purely from the viewpoint of the gameplayer. If I feel this so strongly that I think we need to drastically change a spec, I will up end a tea-table."

"I think my vision of a happy gamer's face is a good match for Nintendo's vision."

He's talking about the success of Wii Play now.

Oh, now he's saying that reviewers maybe need to add a new way to score games, something that reflects how fun it is to play a game for people who don't normally game.

Now he's talking about Communication. I hope to god they announce they're getting rid of Friend Codes. Please get rid of Friend Codes. We like names, thank you very much.

Right now he's talking about single player versus multiplayer gaming.

Zelda was confusing to those in Japan, he said. They told him to make one way through the dungeon, no multiple paths. "But I ignored them."

He said he took their sword away from the beginning of the game because then they would know what they wanted to do. And in turn they would start to talk and think about the game, share their ideas about how to beat the game.

It was a new form of game communication.

"In this sense Zelda became the inspiration for something very different: Animal Crossing. This was a game based solely on communication."

He's talking about prioritization now. People are always complaining about not having enough, he says. Not enough graphics, not enough gameplay, but as a developer he needs to prioritize.

:He's talking about applying prioritization to Wii Sports baseball.

The game, he points out, only has one stadium, has no real teams and the characters themselves are very simplistic.

"We had these concerns in Nintendo, but we agreed that our time could be better spent making the game feel more realistic."

They spent all of their time working on pitching and hitting.

It was only by applying this strict priortization that we were able to deliver this game on time.

Being a baseball fan myself I'm really hoping I will be able to play a more realistic baseball game on the Wii.

The final aspect of his personal mission is about tenacity.

He's talking about a indoor pitching machine, a sort of real world toy Nintendo once made that never took off. Shigeru never forgot about that and finally was able to work that into Wii Sports with Baseball.

Next he's talking about the disc drive on the Famicon. He showing how you can draw your own face on the old Famicon.

"So this was coupled with something called the Scenario disc which would animate the face. I thought this would be a great idea, but there weren't many people who agreed with me."

"It awoke from hibernation after several years."

When the released the Nintendo 64 they sold a similar game to members of their service in Japan.

The key features of this program were the wide variety of clothing and the editor.

Then came the e-Reader in the GameBoy advance and the GameBoy Camera.

Again they tried a similar approach. He's got some super freaky avatars up on the screen James Browning it up. The audience is all clapping.

I'm a little scared.

Shigeru said it was obvious that it would be a huge hit, but the Nintendo folks said it's funny, but how's it a game?

When Wii planning begin, again he returned to the same idea.

He said Iwata told him one day that the DS team was working on a similar game and making good progress.

"I said this is exactly what I was thinking of. I went back to my team and said you guys are useless. I then left them for awhile and worked with this other team for awhile."

Shigeru says that while it was always a good idea there were questions they could never answer, like how is it a game or how could it be used. The Wii answered those questions.
Over the years his idea became less of a game and more of a utility because of the increases in technology. They were actually reducing the number of people would play with it. But once they limited it, it became accessible to a wider audience.

"My tenacity finally paid off, but only when I was willing to take the risk of looking at the problem from a different angle."

Today people are so taken with the Miis around the world. Im working on a new Mii channel.

With this channel we are going to let people compare the Miis they created in a popularity contest.

And you will be allowed to do this with people from around the world.

Now he's talking Mario. What happened to Mario 128?

When people ask me what happened to Mario 128, I'm already at a loss of how to answer. Most of you have already played it, but you played it in Pikmin.

You will be experiencing a new element of Mario 128 soon in Super Mario Galaxy.

He's showing a video of Super Mario Galaxy.

The video shows Mario soaring through the air, running around globes, rotating surfaces and shooting from vines with gravity shifting on him.

Wow, some really amazing stuff here and the video just ended.

"You'll be able to play Super Mario Galaxy this year."

My main message is that creative vision isn't just one element of game design it is the most important element."

"We much reach out to those to not only those who don't understand video games, but those who fear it. Wouldn't it be great if we could get them to play games too?"

"We are humans, and our job is to entertain humans and to do that we must always remember the human touch."

"After all if we can convert my wife, we can convert anyone."

And the show's over.

For the first time in eight years, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto will be presenting a keynote. A Creative Vision, presented on March 8 at the Game Developers Conference, will have Miyamoto explaining how a single creative vision drives his work and what his creative process is for making games like Donkey Kong, Nintendogs and Twilight Princess.

"The Game Developers Conference is a place for developers to learn from one another, and I think it is safe to say that every member of the community has at one time or another fantasized about having Shigeru Miyamoto as a mentor and teacher," said Jamil Moledina, Executive Director of the GDC. "By guiding us through his creative vision with a keynote at this year's GDC, Miyamoto is allowing all attendees this incomparable privilege."

This should be interesting. Last year's talks by Will Wright and Iwata were some of the best I've seen from game developers. I'm sure this Miyamoto's will be right up there.

If you're planning on going and still haven't registered you'd better get to it before the end of the month if you want the cheap tickets. Brian Crecente

GDC

SAN FRANCISCO - Jan. 22, 2007 - Videogame development legend Shigeru
Miyamoto will make a rare public appearance at the 2007 Game Developers
Conference (GDC) for his first keynote since 1999. Dubbed "The Spielberg of
Video Games" by Time Magazine, Miyamoto, Nintendo's Senior Managing Director
and General Manager, Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, will
present the talk, "A Creative Vision." In this session, he will reveal how
a singular creative vision drives his work, not only in terms of his
world-renowned software like the Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda
series, but also in generating key technologies, including the current
global phenomena, Nintendo DS and Wii. GDC, CMP Technology's annual
conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games, takes place
March 5-9, 2007 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

"A Creative Vision" marks Miyamoto's first major talk since Nintendo's
release of Wii, and its smash-hit launch titles, Wii Sports and The Legend
of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which all serve as examples of the design
legend's matchless artistic leadership. His much-anticipated title, Super
Mario Galaxy for the Wii, is expected to release later in 2007. In his
keynote, Miyamoto will invite the attending developers to apply the creative
process he will outline in their own distinctive styles.

"The Game Developers Conference is a place for developers to learn from one
another, and I think it is safe to say that every member of the community
has at one time or another fantasized about having Shigeru Miyamoto as a
mentor and teacher," said Jamil Moledina, Executive Director of the GDC.
"By guiding us through his creative vision with a keynote at this year's
GDC, Miyamoto is allowing all attendees this incomparable privilege."

Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977 as a staff artist and quickly built a
reputation for himself. In 1981, Nintendo released Miyamoto's creation
Donkey Kong to arcades, launching what would come to be known as his first
masterpiece. In 1985, Nintendo released their Nintendo Entertainment System
with Miyamoto's Super Mario Bros; over time, more than 40 million units of
the game were sold worldwide, and a series of mega-hit titles was born,
including the 1996 Nintendo 64 best seller, Super Mario 64. More than 193
million video games in the Super Mario series have been sold worldwide.

To date, Miyamoto has worked on more than 100 different Nintendo video game
titles, supporting younger video game creators as a producer for Kirby and
Pok mon games. Miyamoto's most recent video game projects include Wii
Sports, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendogs, Super Mario
Galaxy and design work on the Wii hardware. He also was responsible for The
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine,
Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which has
been called the greatest video game of all time.

In 1998, Miyamoto was honored as the first inductee into the Academy of
Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. In 2005, he and his best-known
creation, Mario, were honored as inaugural inductees into the Walk of Game
in San Francisco. In 2006, he became one of the first video game creators
knighted into France's Order of Arts and Letters.

Miyamoto's keynote, "A Creative Vision," will take place from 10:30am -
11:30am in the Esplanade Room of the Moscone Center's South Hall on
Thursday, March 8.

More than 12,500 game industry professionals will convene during GDC, the
world's largest games industry-only event dedicated to the advancement of
resources, tools and technologies used to create interactive entertainment.
The GDC features more than 300 lectures, panels, tutorials and round-table
discussions on a comprehensive selection of game development topics taught
by leading industry experts.

For more information, or to register for the Game Developers Conference,
please visit www.gdconf.com. The deadline for early rate pricing is January
31st.

Also, don't forget to check out our in-person chat with Gates. In it he talks about the new push for the Xbox team, the Xbox as PC trojan horse, how Zune is following the Xbox model and his own personal gaming habits.

CES 06 Keynote

Our very spunky part-time British bird Alice spotted an intriguing observation made by Rod over at Gaming Edge about Ken Kutaragi's TGS 06 keynote: it's almost point-for-point the same damn speech he delivered 6 years ago.

"We need an open system. Like an internet. People can have a first hand experience: the network world of the game has to be open to everyone."

"Sony has Sony's agenda. But (I) want a very open platform, equal for every person."

"For instance: for movies. You looked at the [..] you can jack in and watch the new world. We are very lucky to live in this era. We try to open the door for the future."

"You can communicate to a new cybercity. This will be the ideal home server. Did you see the movie 'The Matrix'? Same interface. Same concept. Starting from next year, you can jack into 'The Matrix'!"

The first in each set of quotes is from TGS this year. The other is from a press piece from 2000, prior to the PS2's launch

As good old Alice notes, "Naughty man. If only he could break out prices from 6 years ago too." Florian Eckhardt

Wait, it's 2006 - right? [Gaming Edge]

Ribbon cutting, line waiting, and Sony's Ken Kutaragi talking. A lot. Here's how TGS gets its warm-up on. Do note: Before the keynote, we were given a flier that said we could only show 15 seconds of footage from Kutaragi's speech. I asked an event organizer why? Her reply: My boss told me too. Well, we are no match for that kind of logic. Brian Ashcraft

After some weird rumors of a "big" announcement coming out of Ken Kutaragi's TGS 2006 keynote, it has passed with stifling a yawn and feeling "blah" But there's still some pretty hysterical commentary in some of the other liveblogs that covered the event.

First of all, from the lovely Alice, who wrote some really withering remarks in her liveblog, this comment on Ken Kutaragi hating sequels:

Sony finished off with a little finger-wagging at the development community: "why so many sequels", Ken asked, having demo'ed Ridge Racer SEVEN, Virtua Fighter FIVE, Mobile Suit Gundam SIX (at least, if I'm not wrong) and Final Fantasy THIRTEEN. Innovation will come from users, or the power of the network, or by returning game designers to the creative process instead of having them out there photographing cars and landscapes for the next racing game.

And this off-the-cuff diss by the Eurogamer crew:

If you're wondering when Ken is actually planning on talking about games or anything remotely concrete or relevant to gamers, developers or anyone else - so are we!

Finally, from Joystiq:

During the keynote, the DS pictochat room that had fallen silent sprang to life as bored attendees decided to entertain themselves, since it was clear that Ken Kutaragi had no intention of doing so. After the keynote, we head the words "meltdown," "total disaster," and "trainwreck" bandied about the press room. This keynote was worse — way worse — than Sony's E3 showing.

You know, Sony, the second you guys stop fucking up every last details of your launch, we'll cover it. Keep us posted, okay, guys? Florian Eckhardt

Related: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/tgs06/tgs06-liveblogging-kutaragis-keynote-202427.php

The system would allow gamers to upload content for use in gameplay. Ken Kutaragi did not expand on the announcement, though he did mention Gran Turismo as an example. In that game, he suggested, maps could be created using real world maps. Brian Crecente

Liveblogging the Sony Presser [Kotaku]

Sony has said there will be at least 20 playable PS3 titles on the show floor as well,

TGS06: Liveblogging Kutaragi's Keynote [Kotaku]

Makuhari Messe. International Conference Room. At a little before 10am. AND NO ONE IS HERE.

Well, no. That is not true. No one is in front of us. Not yet. The foreign press has been shoved to the back of the bus, leaving the front of the hall wide open to more important people. Mike just ran off to "fix the hairdo" before the keynote kicks off.

Oh. Wow. The section in front of us filled right up, right quick. Mike is back. They are limiting the press to only show 15 SECONDS of the keynote. That is it. You can film the whole thing, but only run 15 secs.

Mike here. I'm back from fixing my hair — another few hours and it'll be perfect. Now the struggle to use a Japanese Mac goes into full force. More Japanese press is streaming in. Not sure if that body odor is European or not, but it's super strong.

Brian is on his knees, snapping pics of the Weekly Famitsu hearthrob editor in chief and president of Enterbrain. We're in the same row. Maybe our seats aren't so ghetto after all.

It's now 10:03 AM. Kutaragi is now officially late.

Okay, this is bordering on rude. Maybe Sony is going to come out and announce that the keynote has been delayed until Spring 2007. They obviously don't realize we have a schedule; developers to interview, campaign girls to ogle, crappy food to eat.

There go the lights! It's on.

Kenny takes the stage. Good morning, Ken! He's thanking the CESA and talking about the PlayStation 3 launch, which will "open the eyes of the new generation of gamers".

They've brought 200 PS3's to the show.

He's inviting us to "feel" the PlayStation 3 while we're here. Eww. Brian just grabbed by bicep. Trailers are kicking in.

Ridge Racer 7. Looks hot. Looks 1080p, but don't quote me on that. Ships 11/11.

Now Sega's Virtua Fighter 5 gets the trailer treatment. Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight is up next. Lots of bullets, lots of mecha, lots of building smashing.

The E3 trailer for Final Fantasy XIII kicks off. Still looks unbelievably (keyword: unbelievable) amazing.

The lights come up and Ken asks "How did you like that?". Not bad, Ken. Not bad.

Ken's talking about the history of the PlayStation and how computing power, memory capacity, and graphics capabilities have improved. He's quite pleased with himself. He's going on about the controller, the advances in controller interfaces, real time response with games and how that requires fast calculations.

He's making a big push on the capabilities of PC's. "There's a breakthrough that is almost upon us", he says. He's seriously namedropping Oracle and talking about networking and databases. C'mon, Ken! Show more video game trailers! He won't stop. Viruses, cell phones, blah blah blah. We want to see Devil May Cry 4!

What he's finally getting to is that we can use all of this data across a network to do things like pull real map and building data and use a controller to fly through them. He actually just said "if you look at the building permit data... the capabilities are enormous". He's talking about how that data could (is?) used in Ridge Racer 7. Instead of actually rebuilding maps based on real locations, he implies that developers will be able to use real map data to build tracks.

He says that that software is now available, that it will help developers eliminate costs for creating art and assets. Hypothetically, using a global mapping system, users can upload data to a world map. He says that pictures from a handycam can be uploaded to this system. "This is not a pipe dream. Not a pie in the sky."

Now he's going back to search engine functions, foresees personalized shopping, 120% accurate search results for individuals.

Gran Turismo is up for discussion. He's going on about, you guessed it, using real world map and landscape data to create locations like the Grand Canyon and Nurbering. Plus, information about cars themselves must also be collected and then transformed into something the PlayStation can understand. The GT slide says "After four long years in the making does the latest instalment [sic] of the Real Driving Simulator bring us one step closer to driving heaven? Try several hundred steps..." Okay.

He talks about opening up the PlayStation platform for developers. Not sure exactly what this means.

Now Ken moves on to the internet. Users will be able to upload, classify, share massive amounts of content. We now have the potential for massive digital distrubution of music, movies, and more.

Now we're going back in time, 12 years, to the original PlayStation. He talks about the manufacturing problems and cheap cost of using CD-ROM technology to store game data. Touches on the "long-tail" business model potential for the 15,000 original PS1 titles.

He just won't shut up about the network! Let's hope that Sony has their act together on the online gaming front, because if it doesn't live up to Live, it sounds like the business could shatter from within.

We're almost an hour in and Ken isn't slowing down.

Sounds like Ken is saying that users will be able to play PS1 and PS2 titles via emulation over the network, no physical optical media required. The translation is sketchy, but I swear they just said PC Engine games would be playable over the network. Again, don't quote me on that. Hopefully, Ken will get to the PowerPoint presentation soon.

Okay, he's going on more about the network in the form of the Folding@Home project.

Ken is about to wrap it up but is going to show us a video. Rhino Studios Afrika comes up. A grassy plain, followed by gorgeously rendered elephant herds, wildebeasts by the thousands, giraffes walking against the sunset. Hyenas! Zebras! Hippos! I am unnecessarily excited to be looking at digital wildlife. A rhino just charged the camera.

Holy crap. That cheetah looks photorealistic. It just took down some poor gazelle. Owned.

And... that's it. That's it? Huh.

Well, there's a Q&A session coming up, but we're off to interview developers. We'll have footage and reactions up later (a whole 15 seconds worth, but they'll be thrilling I'm sure). Bye!

Penny Arcade's keynote is about to start. I'm sitting in the packed main theater watching a bunch of trailers for some hot looking games. I've seen Assassin's Creed, Guitar Hero 2 and an RPG video for Warhammer Online. Man, that looks hot.

Weeeeee. I've got WiFi. For as long as it lasts I promise to update. So far I'm still sitting around waiting for the keynote to start. Hang and I'll update on the fly.

Ooooh, it's starting. Hit the jump for the liveblogging.

Robert Khoo is on the stage, he's just introduced Alex St. John.

ASJ is a happy man. I think St. J just had his two daughters toss a bunch of bigg ass balls into the crowd. Typiing with balls flying at my face, this must be what Paris Hilton feels like.

Ooh man, now he's throwing ping pong balls and frisbees into the crowd. If I break my laptop again, I'm going to be ticked. Oooh I just beaned someone in the back of the head with a Pilates Ball.

Fuck a ping pong ball just bounced off the space bar.

OK, St. J is talking about the birth of the Xbox. This hasn't, however, stopped his daughters and the crowd from pelting each other with balls.

Fun.

St. J is walking us through the history of the Manhattan Project, Microsoft's bid to move PC games to Windows.

Ah, just interupted himself to light up a cigar. I kid you not.

Oooh, cool he's showing off the official Manhatten Project shirt. There's 35 of them out there in the world. It shows a mushroom cloud and says "Shall we play a game?"

St. J met with Richard Garriott, says he tried to convince him to get into multiplayer gaming.

Oh, oh. They just came and took away his cigar.

"I've got another one here," he says smiling.

This is pretty cool, it's basically a sorta stream-of-consciousness speech about St. J's memories of great gaming events.

He's on to the importance of violence video games.

He met with the gaming team and told them to stop "making this shit" that they needed some blood, action, violence.

"They turned down publishing Quake from id. A little too violent can't publish that game, too fun."

At the unveiling of DIrectX, St. J says that the computer blue screened and the crowd started chanting DOS! DOS! DOS!

At another launch party, Judgement Day, on Halloween. During the party they showed a funny video made by Bill Gates.

"I had to get a trench coat and a shotgun for Bill Gates. I said, Bill we're going to blue screen you into Doom."

They had a haunted house on the campus and Msoft asked the different developers to make the different rooms. id invited GWAR. GWAR brought a 8-foot vagina with 100 phalusis hanging from it and OJ's severed head.

We had the haunted house and every Msoft exec went through it and laughing and covered with goo. Just laughing their asses off.

Several days later, St. J asked someone who went through, what happened inside. They said it was dark and it was chaotic... the punchline is they had no idea what was going on or what they were looking at. Nobody saw a damn thing.

Sooo, let's talk about BunnyGate. We decided to have a Roman Orgy.

One of the lions got loose and tore itself off the chain it was one and started roaming around the crowd. The drunk guy is tapping a lion with a turkey stick, but nothing happened.

There was a playmate, she was Ms. April, and she was also the president of Black Dragon Entertainment, which made games.

I said I think it would be cool if she was one of the sponsors.

We decided to have a skit with her as Cleopatra. Caused a huge scandal, there was an incredible amount of press about it.

Bill Gates couldn't make it. So I had some guy who looked like him and everyone thought it was really him.

Nobody realized they did not see Bill Gates that day.

Now he's talking about the "DirectXbox." I hired Kevin Bachus as my successor.

Bachus and Blackley put together the original pitch to build the Xbox.

I caused a bit of a hostage situation. I had ordered a new Hummer because I had enough Microsoft stock.

He was sitting in my purple HumVee planning the next big DIrect X party.

He had planned to have Bill Gates peel off a fake face on national TV and reveal he was an alien.

He was going to kidnapp the entire audience.

They canceled the event. The Union guys said they wouldn't let any of the contractors who are building in the hanger out unti lthey get paid.

St. J called the union rep and is told, tactfully, that he has a hostage situation and needs a check for a quarter of a million dollars before he lets them go.

Three days pass. He's having food brought into the hanger to feed the hostages.

St. J tells his boss that he's work a deal to have the military clear the hostages out for a mere $60,000. They go for it and the press never found out. But he lost his job.

Funny guy.

We need to liven it up some more. Oh oh, He's going to throw shit again. Duck and cover!

St. J is giving away a jacked up computer. It's a brand new Gateway and some other stuff. Nice, he's mailing everyone free games from his company, WIld Games.

He gave the super computer to the guy who was beaned with a white ping pong ball. Clever idea. Damn, I think I had that.

The Gamespot reporter won it and now he's throwing the ping pong bal lback into the crowd. Nice guy! Brian Crecente

Just in case you thought all of that talk about Will Wright's giant brain hurting everyone during his GDC keynote was crap, I've uploaded a taste of the brainy blather. This is Wright addressing why the existence of life is so... or rather that radioactive...um, that life spreads really...actually, I have no idea what the video is about.