Producer of Final Fantasy XI, Hiromichi Tanaka is set to keynote this years Game Developers Conference (GDC), held in Austin. Tanaka, an executive officer at Square Enix and lead developer of the successful massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Final Fantasy XI, will discuss the challenges of designing and creating a MMO for multiple platforms. Final Fantasy XI is in fact the first in the series to allow both console and PC gamers to unite in the online world.

GDC Content Manager, Jane Pickard had the following to say regarding the announcement of Tanaka’s keynote speech:

We are honored to have Hiromichi Tanaka, a leading figure in the online game developer community deliver the International Keynote at this year’s event. Tanaka’s presence at our conference is indicative of the event’s global appeal. The Austin GDC attracts both national and international attendees due to its historically laid back and intimate environment, and specialized industry topics covered via the show program.

GDC takes place September 5-7, 2007 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin Texas.

On an annual basis the Casual Games Association (CGS), releases a report which outlines trends and shifts in the casual games industry. The 2007 Casual Games Report has revealed that the games industry has more offerings, increased investments and a general shift toward retail and online games by consumers. This is great news and suggests that the casual games industry has experienced strong growth which continues to steadily rise.

The 2007 Casual Games Report indicated that women still make up the majority (74%) of all paying players online while men take up about half of the non-paying gaming world, which is much larger. Competition has also increased in what is a dynamic market, meaning more and better gaming offers for consumers.

The number of titles being submitted has actually doubled over the last two years, as there has been an increase in publishers developing new games. I have noticed this trend evolve via the world wide web, where numerous websites cater to the casual gaming audience and also on consoles such as Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3, where casual gaming continues to grow via their online services.

The finding also revealed that over the past year, investors spent in excess of $200 million to gain interest in casual games industry assets. This strong interest in new capital investment had particularly widened in the MMO market with $35+ million invested in that casual games field alone.

The 2006 report found that the most popular casual games available were Diner Dash, Bejeweled, Cakemania, Slingo and Mystery Case Files.