It’s time again for the annual Games Developers Conference in the great state of Texas. Officially kicking off yesterday, the 7th annual GDC features a number of perennial standbys, but also adds a few new panels this year including sessions centered around Independent Game Development and iPhone Gaming. Featuring over 130 talks, panels, keynotes, and roundtable discussions, presented by over 200 leading industry figures, and 80+ exhibitors, this year’s Austin GDC is shaping up to be a showdown in the Lone Star state.

Three main keynotes are expected, with SOE President John Smedley kicking things off with his talk today. Titled, “From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts…It’s a Whole New MMO World,” Smedley is expected to not only address that rapidly changing landscape of today’s modern MMO, but also make official registered users numbers from SOE’s white-hot kid/tween hit Free Realms. The under 13 MMO has recently surpassed the ‘unofficial, industry certified, you’ve got a hit’ benchmark of 5 million registered users. While a number of industry analysts projected the 5 million milestone to find a home at Sony sometime in July, Smedley says that the actual time was sometime in August. However, no matter how you look at it, Smedley and the entire SOE team dedicated to Free Realms are doing an outstanding job marketing and delivering a free-to-play product to one of the toughest market segments on the planet.

Thursday will see J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce, Production Director and Co-Founder & EVP of Product Development, respectively, of Blizzard Entertainment. The two will deliver their keynote, “The Universe of World of Warcraft.” In this talk, the duo are expected to address the challenges not only in design and implementation, but how maintaining a player based and achieving sustain success requires a collective effort from all departments outside the development team. The two will share important lessons learned by one of the world’s largest MMO producers, and how other developers can learn from their miscues.

Rounding out this year’s Austin GDC will be Sebastien de Halleux, COO and co-founder of Playfish. Delivering his keynote, “A New Social Era for Games: How Your Friends Are Chaging the Way the World Plays Games,” Mr. de Halleux will share his insights into how and why Playfish’s innovative social games were created and how they’re attracting millions of players every month. The talk in particular should be of high interest to those in the free-to-play market, as de Halleux will address the current shift in the gaming industry and how it effects monetization and distribution. If these juicy bits of insider information into one of the most successful free-to-play gaming companies around wasn’t enough for you, de Halleux will also discuss how social emotions can be tapped to drive catalog-free distribution, how to make free-to-play titles profitable, and why your friends hold the keys to success in this new social era.

“GDC Austin 2009 is a must attend event for aspiring game developers to learn the craft from seasoned experts in the field, and a place for veteran developers to engage in the future of connected game development” says Izora de Lillard, Event Director at Think Services. “Beyond that, GDC Austin is a great opportunity for the game development community to come together and learn more about the developers and the titles that will define the future of connected games.”

Naturally, fatfoogoo will be in attendance, if you’d like to talk to Martin Herdina, our CEO, drop him a line at martin [at] fatfoogoo [dot] com