With GDC 2008 just around the corner, the eyes of the gaming community always turn to it for the latest on game development, trailers, gaming engines, and general information about their up and coming anticipated titles. This isn’t anything new of course and gamers and developers alike have looked forward to this event over the course of its history. The latest news coming out of the pre-GDC time period is that Square Enix is now confirmed to have several speakers on hand.

Taka Murata – Murata is the General Manager of the Research and Development Division for Square Enix Co. Taka has over 15 years of game developing experience and is partly responsible for some of Square’s heaviest hitters in gaming. He will be discussing the new White Engine being used for FFXIII, a new MMO under development, and will take you through the process of the engine’s development.

Isamu KamikoKuryo – Isamu joined the Square Enix family after being mesmerized by the playing experience that FFVII delivered to him. Since then he has done behind the scenes art for FFX and was one of the lead art designers for FFXIII. Isamu is expected to discuss the art direction behind FFXIII, how he gets his inspiration, how he was trained, and how his concept designs help influence the game development.

Fumiaki Shiraishi – Fumiaki is the systems and network programmer for Final Fantasy XI and Front Mission Online. He got his start by creating successful RPG’s in his high school computer room and his career took off from that point forward. Shiraishi will be discussing the development and look of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Little King which is a WiiWare game. This will then be followed by explaining the difficult decisions that went into creating this game with just a 40MB limit.

With three key members of the Square Enix family at GDC, this can only prove to be an informative time for supporters of the company. Not to mention a new confirmed MMO being under development, we can only imagine the addiction that lay in hiding. The success of FFXI has obviously given Square the push forward to creating a next generation MMO. If history repeats itself, it can only lead to good things for fans of the genre.

We’ll be bringing you news from GDC as it happens as some of our staff will be live on location in San Francisco. Make sure to stay up to date as we’ll be bringing you new info throughout the event.