via gamespot

On Wednesday, the big news at the 2007 Game Developers Conference was Sony's debut of its PlayStation Home avatar-based service. On Thursday, Nintendo had the opportunity to claim some of the buzz with Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote at the Moscone Center's cavernous south hall esplanade.

The line of eager developers waiting to get into the hall surrounded an entire city block 20 minutes before the keynote was intended to tip off. It snaked back around on itself as GDC staffers did their best to keep the crowd from spilling over onto the streets.

The enthusiasm was understandable, though. The previous evening, Miyamoto took home a lifetime achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards for his three decades of work. After receiving a standing ovation, he promised those in attendance that he would have much to say at his keynote the following morning, amping up expectations to stratospheric heights.

10:40: Inside the hall, attendees are greeted by the obligatory gaming press conference thumping techno music. Five massive video screens dominate the space as a host of gaming journalists huddle over softly glowing laptops. Almost 10 minutes after the scheduled start time, people are still finding their seats as an announcement is made asking for cell phones to be turned off.

10:47: People are still finding seats. A certain game-blog staffer is running around with a video helmet haranguing anyone in range.

10:48: Staffers are still trying to find seats for attendees, squeezing as many people into the auditorium as possible. Mutterings in the crowd range from discussion of Sony's keynote to assessments of the week's various parties, with free beer, swag, and embargoed news being freely disseminated.

10:52: People continue to jostle for seating. Hopefully there aren't any fire marshals about...

10:55: The DS pictochats are almost as full as the auditorium as attendees are again asked to take their seats. The keynote is scheduled to end at 11:30 a.m., but that seems unlikely at this rate.

10:59: Still nothing happening. You can almost feel an epidemic of gluteal cramps begin to break out amongst the constantly shifting crowd. Still, Perhaps surprisingly, the crowd seems to be tolerating the delay in good spirits. Conversations about Mega Man, Mario, and other familiar franchises rise above the din.

11:00: Now the show starts.

11:01: GDC director Jamil Moledina takes the stage to introduce Shigeru Miyamoto, talking about the creator's "quarter century of disruptively contagious hits."

11:02: Miyamoto takes the stage to a round of applause and cheers. He's wearing a link pin on his lapel.

11:03: Speaking through a translator, Miyamoto says he will use the Wii's photo channel to give his presentation.

11:04: Miyamoto begins talking about his 25 years designing video games, referencing games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man as the games people talked about.

11:05: He shows a picture of the stereotypical child gamer, eyes glazed, jaw slack, and calls it "disturbing."

11:06: He brings up the top-selling games of 1998, pointing to Nintendo's GoldenEye at the top of the charts and saying that the gamer image was still generally neutral. But by 2004, he said something had changed.

11:07: With Grand Theft Auto and Halo 2 on the top of the charts, Miyamoto said he was getting new questions from reporters, questions about what effects games had on people. Even though sales went up, he said the reputation of the industry went down.

11:08: Miyamoto expressed his concern about games becoming stagnant as everyone tried to do the one type of game that was successful, and then brings up his creative vision, and "The Nintendo Difference."

11:09: The three elements of Nintendo's corporate vision are next. Up first is the expanded audience. Miyamoto says he has his own way of gauging a product's potential success with an expanded audience. He calls it "the Wife-o-meter," and shows a graphic of it. It measures one variable: The interest of his own wife.

11:10: He says that we may remember the first time we played Pac-Man or Super Mario Bros. as important moments in our lives. However, they were not important moments for his wife.

11:11: Not even Tetris attracted Miyamoto's wife, but she took some interest in their daughter's experience with Ocarina of Time. Animal Crossing scored even better on the Wife-o-meter, convincing her to actually pick up the controller, but Miyamoto still strived to drive the meter higher.

11:13: Now he talks about pets. While his wife is a cat person, Miyamoto prefers dogs. He references the Wii Everybody Votes Channel poll on the subject to show that more than 60 percent of the voting population agrees with him.

11:14: After an extended detour and pictures of his dog, Pick, Miyamoto gets back to the point. He talks about showing Nintendogs to his wife, and how she started looking at games from a different perspective.

11:15: For Valentine's Day, Miyamoto said he came home from work expecting her to be asleep, but instead found her playing the Wii. She had stayed up casting votes on the Everybody Votes channel.

11:16: Miyamoto was shocked, saying it meant she had downloaded the channel herself. He said it would have been less surprising to find Donkey Kong ransacking his house.

11:17: Now he shows a picture of the second installment of Brain Age, and how she's embraced the game completely. Miyamoto says she's turned into a hardcore gamer and shows off her Mii, which she uses ...