Typically, it’s not so much the news that comes out of the Game Developers Conference by the insight that is important. In years past, Nintendo has had the opportunity to hold the keynote address. Just last year Satoru Iwata revealed Super Mario 3D Land and Netflix for 3DS at one one such keynote. This year Nintendo will once again be making an appearance at the show, but will be holding two, smaller, panels.

The first of these panels is titled “Thinking in 3D: The Development of Super Mario 3D Land” in which game director Koichi Hayashida will talk about how the development team behind the game used the 3D capabilities of the 3DS to properly deliver a compelling gameplay experience. During the panel Hayashida hopes to teach developers what the difference between 2D and 3D gameplay is, as well as talk about the development behind Super Mario 3D Land.

The second panel will be headed by Principal Software Engineer for Nintendo of America Steve Rabin, and will be entitled “Existential Crisis: Do We Really Need AI?” The panel will focus on the the importance of AI in video games.

This year’s GDC will be held from March 5-9 in San Fancisco, CA. The two panels will be held on March 7th and March 6th, respectively.

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Satoru Iwata is the fourth president of Nintendo, and has seen the company through it’s highest highs, and now it’s lowest lows. For Nintendo to get back on top, it is going to take something special from Iwata, and in this months semi-annual financial results briefing he discusses just how the company plans to do so.

One of the key items on Iwata’s agenda is to gain support from third parties, and to help them as needed to bring games to their platforms.

I think one of the very important jobs of Nintendo is to identify the third-party software made in Japan which, we believe, will have a strong affinity with the tastes in the overseas markets and, thus, have a strong market potential there, and we will collaborate with them to make these titles into hits. So, with these different efforts, we would like to enrich the software lineup for the markets outside Japan as well from next year, which will become one of the contributing factors for our improved profitability in the next fiscal year.

As I have been echoing for awhile now, all Nintendo needs to be successful is games, games games. Oh and games. If they can not only get third parties to bring their titles to Nintendo platforms, but to be successful in doing so, it will go a long way towards earning back some of the goodwill that was lost from fans and developers alike.

With many heavy hitting franchises scheduled to appear on 3DS in the coming months and into 2012, I can only imagine that Nintendo will again gain much of the momentum that they had when Wii and DS were both on top of their game. I think the success of Wii U will be largely determined by it’s price point, and only time will tell how much it will be at launch.

As a long time Nintendo fan, it hurts to see the company I love in such a rut at the moment, but I have faith that they will turn things around. Regardless, it isn’t going to stop me from enjoying my most anticipated games of the year in Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land. I can hardly wait.