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GDC to move to San Francisco

Inside word from the upper echelons of GDC's management says that the event has outgrown its San Jose roots, with a move to nearby San Francisco on the cards for next year.

The Game Developers Conference is preparing to bid farewell to its traditional home of San Jose, with the rapidly growing event planning a move to nearby San Francisco next year in a bid to facilitate further growth.

"It's too big for San Jose now," a spokesperson for GDC's management told our commentator at the show . "It's San Francisco for 2005."

The event has attracted enormous attention this year due to rampant speculation that Microsoft would show Xbox 2 software for the first time, with the platform manufacturer finally plumping for showing off its XNA development environment as well as some astounding next generation movies.

Big name software has piled up this year, with the likes of Half-Life 2 and Fable vying for attention with the most senior Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo egos, including J Allard, Peter Moore and Eiji Aonuma.

It seems that the San Jose just doesn't have the hotel space to deal with the event any more, an attendee told GI.biz. San Francisco will easily cater for all the accommodation needs being put upon by not just the development community, but the consumer trade alike, they said.

Game shows seem to be the coup du jour, with news today emerging that a new consumer show GameOn NY will be launched in New York City this November.

San Fran next year, then? Maybe Xbox 2 will deign to grace us with its presence by then...