GDCE '05 a huge success as attendance figures double

Attendance figures for this year's Game Developers Conference Europe have been announced by organisers CMP Game Group, with twice as many delegates turning up for the three-day event than made the trip last year.

Over 700 people attended GDCE, which was held last week in the Cafe Royal in central London, which is a number roughly in line with the 2003 event - before the highly damaging split between the ECTS and EGN trade shows drove attendance at all of London's games events downwards.

CMP Game Group, which is now directly managing the running of GDCE using broadly the same team that organises the hugely successful GDC events each year in California, has pledged to deliver an "equally compelling" event next year.

"The GDC brought industry-leading speakers and timely topics, combined with global and local relevance, to our audience here in Europe," commented GDCE director Jamil Moledina. "We are committed to the European game development market, and are excited about receiving positive feedback from this year's conference."

Highlights of this year's GDCE included input from all three platform holders - with Sony's Phil Harrison and Microsoft's Chris Satchell both delivering keynotes, and Nintendo's Marko Hein also presenting a session - and a keynote from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, discussing the development of soon to be released sequel We Love Katamari.