CEDEC looks West

CEDEC is Japan’s biggest developer conference, and at the last event, which marked its tenth anniversary, there were numerous signs that the organisers are preparing the event for international status.

This year’s conference included an entire track dedicated to overseas development. Speakers from the West included Bioware’s Jason Spangler Bungie’s Steve Theodore and Epic’s Tim Sweeney.

Additionally, as the notoriously guarded Japanese development industry opens its doors to the world, CEDEC responded with roundtables on the likes of ‘How to better work with foreign employees’.

Talking with Develop in our feature on CEDEC, advisory board member and Square Enix’s chief technologist of R&D Naoto Yoshioka predicted that in five years, the show will be visited by Japanese and Western developers in equal number.