Microsoft to present GDC keynote

The organisers of GDC 2008 have announced that Microsoft's John Schappert will be presenting a keynote at the upcoming conference.

Schappert, corporate VP of Live, software and services for the interactive entertainment business at Microsoft, was also a former executive VP for EA and founder of Tiburon Entertainment. He joined Microsoft in August 2007.

His keynote is entitled "A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Community," and marks the first time that Microsoft has given a keynote address since 2005.

"The Game Developers Conference is the premiere stage for industry leaders to present their strategies for advancing the state of the art of games," said Jamil Moledina, executive director of the Game Developers Conference.

"Given John's experience and the Microsoft game development team behind him, we are confident that our attendees will not want to miss this glimpse into the future of how games will be made."

Schappert's keynote will explore the Xbox 360's next step in "democratising game development" and will set the strategy for the console, revealing top developers' plans for the platform in 2008.