GamesBeat Next 2026 is almost here, and we’ve assembled a packed agenda for two days of conversations about the future of the $200 billion interactive economy. Taking place November 2-3 at Convene in San Francisco, the event brings together game industry veterans, investors, technology innovators, creators, and business leaders.
With sessions covering everything from artificial intelligence and game development to finance, publishing, advertising, fandom and entertainment, it can be helpful to look at the agenda by subject rather than following the timetable alone.
Here’s a breakdown of the GamesBeat Next 2026 sessions by topic. Sessions are listed in chronological order within each category, with each appearing under its primary topic.
Welcome remarks
1:00 p.m. Monday, November 2 — Opening welcome from emcee (Pacific Hall)
1:10 p.m. Monday — Opening remarks from GamesBeat cofounders Gina Joseph and Dean Takahashi (Pacific Hall)
9:50 a.m. Tuesday, November 3 — Emcee introduction (Pacific Hall)
10:00 a.m. Tuesday — Day 2 introduction — Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat (Pacific Hall)
5:00 p.m. Tuesday Closing remarks — Rachel Kaser, GamesBeat writer.
Game legends
1:30-2:30 p.m. Monday — Game Legends: Remembering the past and predicting our future (Pacific Hall)
Shawn Layden, Former Chairman of PlayStation Worldwide Studios; Peter Moore, formerly of Unity, Microsoft, EA, and Sega; Doug Bowser, Former President/COO of Nintendo of America and current independent board member of Hasbro.
Moderator: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat.
Games marketing/advertising
2:30-3:00 p.m. Monday — Fandom Is Always On — Brands Need to Be Too (Pacific Hall)
Andrea Hopelain, SVP of Marketing, Electronic Arts.
Moderator: Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat.
10:30-11:00 a.m. Tuesday — The New Launch Playbook: Building Attention, Community, and Momentum Without a Blockbuster Budget (Vista Studio East)
Greg Off, CEO, Off Base; Chris Kramer, VP of PR & Influencer Relations, Off Base.
12:00-12:30 p.m. Tuesday — The New Discovery Funnel: Building and Monetizing Fandom (Pacific Hall)
Jay Sullivan, CEO, Fandom; Wes Morton, CEO, Creativ; David Alpert, CEO, Skybound (pending).
Moderator: Rachel Kaser, GamesBeat writer.
12:00-12:30 p.m. Tuesday — The Legalities of the Creator Economy (Vista Studio West)
Andy Lunique, triple-A creator expert; Alex Owen, General Counsel, Leviathan Core; George DePree, CEO, Leviathan Core; Dan Rogers, Senior Partner, Premack Rogers Downs.
Moderator: Yoshio Osaki, President, IDG Intelligence.
2:00-2:30 p.m. Tuesday — Building the new playbook for advertising in games: Lessons from Xbox Media Solutions (Vista Studio West)
Jonathan Stringfield, VP and GM, Microsoft Xbox Media Solutions.
Moderator: Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat.
3:00-3:30 p.m. Tuesday — How UGC is blurring the line between traditional creator and game developer (Vista Studio East)
Lachlan “Lachyz” McCurdy, Co-founder, YapMaps; Noah “ZyroMC” Woodfine, Co-founder, Chartis; Anne “TheMyzta” Shoemaker, Founder, Fullflower Studio.
Moderator: Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat.
3:30-4:00 p.m. Tuesday — Your players are your greatest marketers. Are you giving them the right tools? (Pacific Hall)
Alexandra Takei, VP, Platform Revenue & Games, Medal.
Moderator: Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat.
AI and tech
3:30-4:00 p.m. Monday — AI-native game development: Gameplay concepts that can only be made with AI (Pacific Hall)
Brian Tanner, CEO, Artificial Agency; Piero Molino, CEO, Studio Atelico; Jon Snoddy, CEO, Operative Games.
Moderator: Jamil Moledina, Venture Partner, Principal Venture Partners.
4:00-5:00 p.m. Monday — AI in Games Deep Dive Roundtable (Landmark Library)
Brian Tanner, Co-founder, Artificial Agency; Greg Canessa, COO, Artificial Agency.
10:30-11:00 a.m. Tuesday — AI & The Next Era of Gaming (Pacific Hall)
Songyee Yoon, Founding Partner, Principal Venture Partners.
Moderator: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat.
11:00-11:30 a.m. Tuesday — Using games as evaluation tools for AI (Pacific Hall)
Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO and Co-founder, Arkadium.
Moderator: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat.
11:00-11:30 a.m. Tuesday — Evidence of Us: Games, Culture, and Generative AI (Vista Studio West)
Kate Edwards, CEO, Geogrify.
11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Tuesday — Practical AI (Vista Studio West)
Daniel Usedom, Founding GTM, US, ThinkingAI; Glenn Fiedler, CEO, Network Next; Andy Tsen, CEO, Ramen.
Moderator: Yoshio Osaki, President, IDG Intelligence.
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Roundtable (Landmark Library) — Beyond Enforcement: Building Trust and Safeguarding the Future of Play
Mike Reavey, CISO and SVP, Security Engineering at EA;
Elise Murphy, VP, Game and Player Security at EA
1:00-1:30 p.m. Tuesday — AI in gaming intellectual debate (Pacific Hall)
Luke Dicken, formerly Head of AI at Take-Two Interactive; Rod Humble, CEO, Megastructure.
Moderator: Tadhg Kelly, Game Consultant.
3:00-3:30 p.m. Tuesday — Spatial Computing & Hollywood’s Next Interactive Economy
Evo Heyning, Founder, Realitycraft
Athena Demos, Co-founder & CEO, Big Rock Creative
Nathalie Mathe
MODERATOR: Shawn Barrett, VP Experiential Design & Partnership Activations, TCL Chinese Theatres
3:00-3:30 p.m. Tuesday — The Future of External Development in the Age of AI (Vista Studio West)
Patrick Sweeney, Partner & Founder, IE Law Group; Mihai Pohontu, CEO, Amber; Alex Fernandez, CEO & Co-founder, Streamline Media Group; Ryan Wiancko, Founder & CEO, Ironbelly Studios.
Moderator: Tammy McDonald, Games Industry Executive.
Entertainment
2:30-3:30 p.m. Monday — World-building Beyond Gameplay: From Screen to Space (Landmark Library)
Marti Romances, Creative Director, Territory.
1:30-2:00 p.m. Tuesday — Players Don’t Need Another Gaming Platform (Pacific Hall)
Jeff Gattis, Head of Gaming, Amazon.
Moderator: Alexander Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat.
3:00-3:30 p.m. Tuesday — Beyond the screen: Hollywood and the next interactive economy (Pacific Hall)
Evo Heyning, Founder, Realitycraft; Jackie Cooper, Co-founder, CG Pro; Athena Demos, Co-founder & CEO, Big Rock Creative.
Moderator: Shawn Barrett, VP Experiential Design & Partnership Activations, TCL Chinese Theatres.
Games business
2:00-2:30 p.m. Monday — Gamedevmap: Big Industry, Small World (Landmark Library)
Gaurav Mathur, Founder, Gamedevmap; Chitvan Gupta, Engineering Manager, Zynga.
2:30-3:00 p.m. Monday — GameDevMap roundtable (Landmark Library)
Gaurav Mathur, Founder, GameDevMap, and TBD.
3:00-3:30 p.m. Monday — Shadow publishing: why studios now own the sale before a publisher will
Liam Wiltshire, General Manager, Tebex; Adam Orth, COO, Midwest Games.
Moderator: Christopher Anjos, Director, Product & Strategy, PUBLSH.
4:30-5:00 p.m. Monday — Where your D2C margin actually goes (Pacific Hall)
Tadhg Kelly, Gaming Consultant; Dmitry Kachmar, Founder, Playgama; Liam Wiltshire, General Manager, Tebex.
Moderator: Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat.
10:00-10:30 a.m. Tuesday — Seeing the optimism and opportunities in games in spite of years of layoffs (Pacific Hall)
Amir Satvat, General Partner, 1Up Ventures; Ed Fries, General Partner, 1Up Ventures.
Moderator: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat.
10:30-11:00 a.m. Tuesday — Africa: Gaming’s Final Frontier: A billion stories, zero sequels (Landmark Library)
Leo Olebe, Venture Partner, Griffin Gaming Partners; Joseph Wilson, CEO, Big Kitten.
Moderator: Lisa Hanson, President, Niko Partners.
10:30-11:00 a.m. Tuesday — Surviving an Extinction-Level Event (Vista Studio West)
Chris Stone, Studio General Manager, VOID Interactive; Oliver Bulloss, CEO, Playamp at MTG; TJ Consunji, Co-founder, Miniboss.
Moderator: Yoshio Osaki, President, IDG Intelligence.
11:00-11:30 a.m. Tuesday — Triple-A to Indie: Lessons Learned (Vista Studio East)
Rob Davis, Co-founder, Big Sky Creative; Katie Golden, Co-founder & CEO, New Pantheon Studios; Tim Morten, Co-founder & CEO, Frost Giant Studios.
Moderator: Darion Lowenstein, CEO & Founder, Secret Code.
11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Tuesday — The Next Billion Gamers Are Families: Building a Global Gaming Platform Parents Can Trust (Pacific Hall)
Tom Kang, President, Nex.
Moderator: Amy Jo Kim, Founder, Game Thinking.
11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Tuesday — D2C: The next generation of mobile monetization (Vista Studio East)
Conor McLaughlin, CRO, Aghanim; Oliver Bulloss, CEO, Playamp at MTG.
Moderator: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat.
12:00-12:30 p.m. Tuesday — The Flexible Publishing Playbook: How Independent Experts Are Replacing the All-or-Nothing Publishing Deal (Vista Studio East)
Adam Krause, Founder & Managing Partner, Miniboss Solutions; Mart Gervacio, Tadhana Interactive; Shelby Cox, Founder & Principal, Platform Edge Advisory.
Moderator: Sarah Anderson, Marketing Executive and Advisor.
12:30-1:30 p.m. Tuesday — GB MAX Private Editorial Roundtable: What’s Next for the $200B Interactive Economy? (Landmark Library)
1:30-2:00 p.m. Tuesday — How Publishers Are Using Competitive Gaming to Build Lasting Communities (Vista Studio East)
Leo Matlock, Chief Business Officer, BLAST; James Shilkret, Associate Director of NA Esports, Ubisoft; Nicholas Phan, Razer.
Moderator: Rachel Kaser, News Writer, GamesBeat.
2:00-2:30 p.m. Tuesday — Building the playbook for daily casual game development (Pacific Hall)
Jonathan Knight, Chief Games Officer, The New York Times; Helen Smith, Head of Games, LinkedIn.
Moderator: Tina Tran, Mr. Beast.
2:00-2:30 p.m. Tuesday — The Survival Plan: Leading People, Product, and Players through Change (Vista Studio East)
Philip Holt, Studio Head, Undead Labs.
Moderator: Tim Morten, Co-founder & CEO, Frost Giant Studios.
2:30-3:00 p.m. Tuesday — Full Throttle: Corsair on Gaming, Content Creators and Sim Racing (Pacific Hall)
Thi La, CEO, Corsair.
Moderator: Michael Metzger, Managing Partner, Drake Star Partners.
2:30-3:00 p.m. Tuesday — Building for decades, not daily engagement (Vista Studio West)
Colin Johanson, Studio Head, ArenaNet.
Moderator: Rachel Kaser, News Writer, GamesBeat.
2:30-3:00 p.m. Tuesday — What Can the Game Industry Learn from UGC Developers (Landmark Library)
Abhi Ramprasad, Chief Strategy Officer, Riot Games; Evan Zirschky, Founder, Turning Tables Games; Saxs Persson, VP, Horizon, Meta; Maureen Fan, CEO & Co-founder, Baobab Studios.
Moderator: Holly Liu, Managing Partner, PKO Investments and member at VENN.
Games finance
4:00-4:30 p.m. Tuesday — Alternative financing for games (Pacific Hall)
Greg Richardson, Managing Partner, Juno Capital; Jerry Ye, Partner, Bitkraft Ventures; Boyoung Kim, Partner, Tsugu Ventures.
Moderator: Eric Goldberg, Co-founder, Playable Worlds.
4:30-5:00 p.m. Tuesday — GamesBeat lightning pitch (Pacific Hall)
Rachel Chai, Investor & Advisor, The Mini Fund; Jared Yeager, Head of FRAME1GAMES, CAA; Devin Maa, Partner, Investment, DENMU.
Moderator: Rachel Heleva, Events Programming Lead, GamesBeat.
Game development
1:30-2:00 p.m. Tuesday — The Production Pivot: Rebuilding How We Build Games (Vista Studio West)
Rich Vogel, Veteran Game Developer; Richard Browne, Director, Blue Moon Production Company; Jen Maclean, CEO, Dragon Snacks Games.
Moderator: Tim Morten, Co-founder & CEO, Frost Giant Studios.
2:30-3:00 p.m. Tuesday — The Future of Co-Development: How We Build Games Next (Vista Studio East)
Alex Fernandez, CEO, Streamline Studios.
Awards
5:00-5:30 p.m. Monday — Mobile Mogul Awards and State of Mobile Games panel (Pacific Hall)
Nick Earl, Former CEO of Glu Mobile and current board member at multiple companies; Steven Chiang, President, Fortis Games; additional speaker TBD.
Moderator: Rachel Kaser, GamesBeat writer.
Women in gaming
9:00-9:50 a.m. Tuesday — Boss Mode panel: Leading with Impact — Women in Gaming and Tech: driving business in the interactive economy (Pacific Hall)
Anne Shoemaker, CEO, Fullflower Studio; Kimberly Pointer Corbett, Founder, UltraLayer; Karin Johnson, Magic Potion Games; Hilary Mason, CEO, Hidden Door.
Moderator: Rachel Kaser, News Writer, GamesBeat.
1:30-2:30 p.m. Tuesday — Roundtable: Fresh Voices in Games, Entertainment, and Tech (Landmark Library)
Arin Goldsmith, Employer Brand Lead, Blizzard Entertainment; Godavari Hughes, Founder and Community Builder, Glitched: Women in Game Dev; Destinee Cleveland, Executive Director, Dames 4 Games.
Moderator: Amir Satvat, General Partner, 1Up Ventures.
Game culture and player trust
4:00-4:30 p.m. Monday — Fun or Addictive? Addressing warranted concerns while avoiding moral panics around video games (Pacific Hall)
Celia Hodent, Game User Experience Strategist and author of The Gamer’s Brain.
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday — Beyond Enforcement: Building Trust and Safeguarding the Future of Play (Landmark Library)
Mike Reavey, CISO and SVP, Security Engineering, EA; Elise Murphy, VP, Game and Player Security, EA.
4:00-4:45 p.m. Tuesday — GB MAX roundtable AMA (Landmark Library)
Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat; Rachel Kaser, News Writer, GamesBeat; Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat.
This session is for VIP pass holders, including GB MAX premium members.