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GDC 2018 breaks attendance record

28,000 industry professionals attended last week's show in San Francisco; dates announced for 2019 GDC and VRDC

It will take more than a little construction to keep game developers from flocking to San Francisco's Moscone Center each year. Organizers of the Game Developers Conference today announced that despite the ongoing renovation efforts at the show's North and South Hall, it still saw its largest turn-out yet, with 28,000 industry professionals attending the show.

The event also hosted 750 lectures, panels, tutorials, and roundtable discussions, while the expo floor attracted more than 550 different exhibitors.

"True to its name, the Game Developers Conference is an event for everyone in the games industry, from the aspiring game makers in the indie showcases, to the legendary creators in the classic games postmortems, and everyone in-between," said GDC GM Katie Stern. "It also helps spotlight the best games of the year, the most promising indie teams, the most advanced technology, and the most pressing social issues as reflected by the industry as a whole.

"Games can be a vehicle for art, but they're also the product of the hard work of game creators from around the world, and GDC will continue to work to showcase the best talent and to help support those on the verge of creating something special that pushes the medium forward. We hope that GDC 2018 has given that developer the push they needed."

GDC and the event-within-an-event Virtual Reality Developers Conference will return to the Moscone Center in 2019, with the show running from Monday, March 18, to Friday, March 22.