GDC 13 pulls in record 23,000 attendees

This Year’s Games Developer Conference pulled in a record breaking 23,000 attendees.

GDC 2013 featured industry professionals from all facets of the game industry and all the upcoming new hardware and tech, including new consoles such as the PS4, Ouya and GameStick as well as virtual reality headset the Oculus Rift, which all continued to make waves at the conference.

Epic also announced further details of Unreal Engine 4, with support confirmed for mobile and HTML5, as well as a web-based version of Unreal Engine 3. Hideo Kojima meanwhile unmasked The Phantom Pain as Metal Gear Solid 5, and shared information on the Fox Engine powering the title, and the studio’s plans to chase photorealism.

One of the week’s standout moments however was the #1ReasontoBe panel, in which women developers let loose on sexism in the game industry, as well as offering advice on achieving success.

“With the game development industry evolving at a faster clip than ever before, we find both the profile of the developer and the types of games represented at GDC also growing to include new and different people and interests,” said GDC general manager Meggan Scavio.

"The response we’ve gotten to this year’s event makes us feel confident that the changes we’ve made, such as the introduction of the Advocacy Track and the Free to Play Game Design and Business Summit, have helped evolved the conference to be even more inclusive. We are thrilled to continue to be a place where members of the profession can connect, discuss and showcase, and look forward to continuing the tradition in upcoming events.”

Dates for the Game Developers Conference 2014 have also been announced, and will take place between March 17th to March 21st at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco.

The call for submissions for the conference will begin in the summer.

If you missed anything during this this year’s GDC, you can catch our full round-up of the major news, announcements and insights, featuring over 80 stories straight from the event, here.