Top 5 takeaways from the Game Development Conference this year

The sole purpose of the GDC is on learning, sharing and networking. Gaming companies and product companies take part to showcase their new products and concepts.

This year the focus of GDC was all about Virtual Reality (VR). Over 2 billion USD has been invested so far in this new and innovative platform. 

1. Big companies like Sony, Oculus, HTC and Facebook have their VR headsets hitting the market in a couple of months and all these were on display at the show.

The first consumer version of the Oculus Rift will be available at stores on March 28 and is being sold for USD 600. The HTC Vive, which comes with a pair of sensors that detect motion in a room, will be released on April 5 for USD 800. They both require high-end PCs in order to work.

Sony also showcased and set the launch month for its Play Station VR. It will be available in stores at October, 2016. The price of the Play Station VR is at USD 399 and this doesn’t require a high end PC but a normal PS 4 will do.

2. There were many demo versions of VR games unveiled and exhibited to potential gamers and game developers. The highly-anticipated "Bullet Train" by Epic games was the star of the VR games. There were many sessions that showed developers and VR enthusiasts how the game was made and showed the inner working and designing of the game.

3. This GDC was also a platform to showcase the technological development in the audio industry. Various High Definition (HD) headsets and speakers to go along with the VR headset were showcased. These hardware and software will in a period of time be available for mass usage said Eric Robinson, who is a Lead Programmer and Designer at Sonic Bloom.

4. The Independent Game Festival (IGF) is another aspect to the GDC. The IGF is a platform for game makers and companies to showcase their latest developments. New games for social media sites, mobile, laptop and desktop platforms were shown. Another part to the IGF is the IGF awards. This is an annual award given to the best independent game. And this year Sam Barlow's Her Story won the award and a cash prize of USD 30,000.

5. Apart from all this, the GDC gave a platform to showcase how VR can change our future. They showed the possible use of VR in the field of film making, travel, fitness, journalism and sports. 

So by the looks of technology showcased at the GDC, we can say that Virtual Reality is going to be massive game changer and we can soon see it all aspects of life in the future.