Kojima joins a host of notable speakers at this year's GDC, including Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, LittleBigPlanet creators Mark Healey and Alex Evans, Epic's Rod Fergusson, and a host of others.

Renowned as one of the world's most influential contemporary game developers, Hideo Kojima first decided to get involved in the game development business while studying economics. Driven by the hardware limitations of the MSX personal computer, he pursued a fresh approach to the action game genre - and thus the stealth genre was born with Metal Gear.

The debut title was then ported to the Famicom, known Stateside as the Nintendo Entertainment System, and received an unofficial sequel titled Snake's Revenge.

The global breakthrough for Kojima's career took place in 1998 when Metal Gear Solid was released on Sony's PlayStation platform, and it has been followed by multiple new titles in the franchise, including the critically acclaimed Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and 2008's multi-million selling Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots.

Kojima also produced the mech action game Zone of the Enders, and also created Boktai: The Sun in your Hand, a Game Boy Advance game which contained a photometric sensor in the cartridge that charged a vampire's solar weapon, sending gamers outdoors to catch some fresh air. This type of idea is something that Kojima has become known for-breaking the "fourth wall" and forcing the player to interact with the game in ways outside of traditional gameplay.