Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, is set to give the keynote address at this year's Games Developers Conference in San Francisco in March.
GDC has continued to grow in terms of its importance on the annual games industry calendar, while the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has fallen from its pinnacle in recent years.
New development opportunities
Mr. Iwata's speech will be called 'Discovering new development opportunities' and it's scheduled for the morning of Wednesday 25th March. TechRadar will be on hand to bring you all the news from GDC as it breaks.
Iwata last spoke at GDC back in 2006 where he outlined his thoughts on 'disruptive development' - a concept that we are all now more than familiar with following the runaway success of the Wii (then codenamed 'Revolution')
His last trip to San Fran also saw the announcement of one of our favourite handheld games of all time: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
New Zelda announcement?
Eurogamer speculates (and hopes, no doubt, along with the millions of other Nintendo fanboys worldwide) "that we'll see another new Zelda this year...a series update is known to be in development and Nintendo's Wii release schedule for the second half of 2009 is looking mysteriously blank."
"The last two GDCs have seen LittleBigPlanet and Gears of War 2 take their bows, so a big game unveiling wouldn't be a surprise - although it's always possible that Iwata will simply take the opportunity to address developers about game development."
TechRadar has contacted Nintendo UK for further news on Iwata's keynote and for the regulation 'no comment on rumour or speculation' about the possibility of a new Zelda. We'll have to wait until March for that one.
GDC takes place in San Francisco from 23rd to 27th March. Stay tuned for more news on what's in store for developers and gamers from the event as we get it.
