GDC 2023 in-person attendance could double to 24K | The DeanBeat
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The Game Developers Conference 2023 event next week could draw as many as 24,000 people in person in San Francisco, about double the number last year.
Stephenie Hawkins, director of event production for media & entertainment at Informa Tech, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the projected GDC attendance reflects the sentiment among game developers to get back together in real life in the wake of a few tough pandemic years.
“We are definitely on target to exceed that. In fact, I think we are just a couple of thousand short as of right now,” Hawkins said. “So it’s really exciting to see.”
She also said the expo halls at the Moscone Convention Center will be completely full, with 330 exhibitors, up from 200 last year, when there were only 12,000 in-person attendees. GDC 2023 will have a total of 730 talks, up from more than 600 last year. Those talks will range from a session about Wordle to Electronic Arts’ remake of the Dead Space horror survival game.
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This is going to be big on a scale that goes way beyond the gaming crowds I saw this week at SXSW Gaming in Austin, Texas, where there about three days of gaming programming amid the larger SXSW entertainment and technology show. SXSW had good crowds, though they were spread all over town. By comparison, GDC is very concentrated around downtown San Francisco.
And much of the old intimacy and community will be back to help developers establish human connections, said Hawkins.
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