Innovation highlights at games conference

Motion controls and social gaming were the hot topics at this week's Game Developers Conference, the annual convention of game designers, programmers and executives, reports The Associated Press.

Sony shook up the conference with a splashy introduction of the PlayStation Move, a new wand-shaped PlayStation 3 motion controller system that will rival Nintendo's popular Wii.

The biggest buzz, however, seemed reserved for social gaming, a form of easy-to-play online multiplayer games. With the success of such social games as the real-time crop-growing simulator 'FarmVille' and the gangster role-playing saga 'Mafia Wars', several conference sessions this year were devoted solely on how to tap into the gaming world's 'next big thing'.

The Internet social networking site MySpace, which has steadily been losing ground to competitors like Facebook, is venturing into the video games arena, in an attempt to regain some of its Internet foothold, says Top News.

That social games are heading to become a key component in MySpace's line of attack is evident from the launch of the 'MySpace Games' strategy - which will display online games on the site and attract developers - by the co-president Mike Jones, at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Despite the fact that MySpace has been in dire straits for almost a year - with diminishing users, profound layoffs, two management reshuffles, and a practical obliteration by rival Facebook -, Jones had said in an interview that the company still has over 100 million users, of which 80% are in the US.

The world's largest social network has thrown down the gauntlet to game developers to design an iconic social game like Mario or Halo for Facebook, states BBC News.

Research suggests around three-quarters of Facebook's 400 million users play social games on the site. The challenge came on the opening day of the Game Developers Conference.

"The next killer game is still out there and this game will come from you," Gareth Davis told a room of designers in San Francisco. "When we look at every major game platform, we see that there is an iconic defining game on that platform whether it's Sonic or Mario or Halo.