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GDC Mobile Roundup

Posted Mar 7, 2015

From VR and new tech to poignant speeches on the state of the gaming industry, there was quite a lot to keep track of this GDC. Now that the conference dust has settled, we’re focusing on the top mobile news and trends to emerge at this year’s Game Developers Conference:

Oculus Focuses on Mobile VR
John Carmack, the CTO at Oculus, took the stage at GDC to discuss why he’s putting so much attention into mobile virtual reality. As he sees it and Jeff Grubb describes, “the eventual, ideal version of VR looks a lot more like the Samsung Gear VR than the Oculus Rift.”

Six months into the project, and the attention is paying off: mobile VR enthusiasts can expect to see a consumer version of Gear VR before the end of this year.

Microsoft Launches Cross-Platform Support
Not to be ignored, Microsoft unveiled its commitment to launch tools for independent game developers that will enable them to create games that can run across its family of desktops, consoles, and mobile devices. Currently, XBox Live support exists for Windows 10 and XBox, but mobile had been left out a bit.

With new true cross-device support, it will be interesting to see how developers will create true cross-screen gaming experiences in the coming year, and what this will mean for the mobile gaming experience.

Monument Valley Wins Best Mobile Game
Edging out 92 finalists and 1,000 entrants, Monument Valley won the Grand Prix at the 11th annual International Mobile Gaming Awards on March 3rd.

Warner Bros Dives Deeper with Games-as-a-Service
Warner Bros gave millions of fans reasons to celebrate at GDC when they announced they will release a handful of new mobile games for Batman, Lego, DC Comics, Mortal Kombat, and Game of Thrones.

David Haddad, Executive Vice President and GM for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, commented on their commitment to mobile gaming, stating:

“Our mobile business has been a key priority for the company, and we are utilizing our incredibly talented internal development teams to create games with marquee franchises.”

While making mobile games isn’t new for Warner Bros, the new titles  will mark the entertainment giant’s shift to a games-as-a-service model, signaling the end of their past premium and social game efforts.

As more premium entertainment brands such as Warner Bros invest more in mobile games, it will be interesting to see how their games evolve from a console mindset to something that can rival and reclaim the #1 app spot from indie mobile favorites like Hipster Whale’s Crossy Road.

Vulkan Seeks to Replace OpenGL
While OpenGL has been the standard in graphics for eons, the Khronos Group wants to replace that with Vulkan. Why? Simply, game developers are always looking for ways to maximize the visual experience of whatever platform they are building for.

Apple already made a move toward improving performance potentials on mobile when it released Metal API, which “removes a lot of the OpenGL overhead,” allowing programmers to work closer to the hardware.

Now, Khronos wants to take it a step further with their “Next Generation OpenGL” dubbed Vulkan. As Khronos describes it:

Vulkan is the new generation, open standard API for high-efficiency access to graphics and compute on modern GPUs. This ground-up design, previously referred to as the Next Generation OpenGL Initiative, provides applications direct control over GPU acceleration for maximized performance and predictability.

In short, developers will be able to break past current CPU bottlenecks and deliver an even richer visual experience across devices without melting your phone or its battery. More details are available on the Khronos website.

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