After a record 2008, attendance at the 2009 Game Developers Conference dipped slightly but still stood strong, with more that 17,000 industry professionals making the trip.
Last year's GDC drew in record numbers, with more than 18,000 members of the gaming industry making the pilgrimage to San Francisco for the annual event. This year's 17,000 represents a slight drop in numbers over the last, which can probably be chalked up to the economy somewhere down the line.
Still, 17,000 is a rather large number. To put that in perspective, attendance at my apartment during the week of GDC was three, except for about 15 minutes on Thursday when my brother stopped over to borrow Street Fighter IV, and two of those were cats. It is unknown how many attendees to the actual conference were cats.
Despite the slight dip, GDC is still on for next year, returning to the Moscone Center on March 9th through the 13th, 2010.