GDC Vox Pop: Why weren't you at the keynote?
Judging from the line outside Moscone's South Hall at about 10:15 this morning, it might have seemed like everyone at the Game Developers Conference was at Sony boss Phil Harrison's keynote speech. That's far from true, though, as Moscone's West Hall was filled with attendees either unwilling, unable or uninterested in attending the major speech.
Eric Bendle form Sierra Nevada Corp. (pictured above) said he was heading down to the speech but "got distracted" by the stuff happening on the convention floor. Bendle seemed mildly interested to find out what was being announced at the speech, but as a defense contractor, he felt the content probably didn't apply too directly to him anyway.
Read on for more justifications for missing the speech.
When I asked Kevin Borer from Riot Games about missing the Sony keynote, he said he "didn't even know it was going on." Even if he had known, he said his Expo pass wouldn't have let him get in anyway. He had yet to even make a quick circuit of the show floor, and seemed more interested in doing that than listen to some guy talk about the PS3.
Justin Stark from Digital Artists Management was also unaware Sony's major speech was going on. Stark said he's been coming to this show for years and is "more interested in making business connections than listening to a speech." As it is, Stark said he only had a half hour to sneak away from his company's booth elsewhere on the show floor, so he probably couldn't spare the time to listen to Harrison anyway.
Carlton D'Silva and Reetu Khatau from Virtual Marketing said they had hopped off a flight from India and arrived at the show just before I talked to them Wednesday morning. They hadn't even had a chance to look at the show schedule, much less plan a trip to an hours-long speech. Regardless, they figured the content probably wouldn't be of interest to them. "We're not so much technology people," D'Silva said. "We're more about connecting people."
Gamestop Assistant Manager Leland Wiseman says he wanted to go to attend Harrison's keynote, but he couldn't afford the hundreds of extra dollars to upgrade his Expo Pass to one that could get him in to the speech. He seemed openly envious of those who got to hear about the latest PS3 and PSP announcements first hand. "I'd love to be there if I could, believe me," he said.
