San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) – the global gathering of the greatest creative minds in the games industry – opened its doors for the second time since the pandemic in March 2023.
Each year a number of key trends stand out. For 2023 it was applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for game development, with the future shape of the gaming experience – with and without virtual reality (VR) – high on the agenda.
Following last year’s tentative steps back on to the expo floor – interacting with devices was off the menu because of COVID fears – Meta (formerly Facebook) was busy sanitising display models of its popular Quest 2 headset to encourage visitors to try it out. The company was also keen to push its heavily discounted Quest Pro headset, which features “colour pass-through”, meaning someone wearing the headset can see an augmented view of the world around them.
