We’ve created quite an agenda for GamesBeat Summit 2026 starting Monday May 18 and running through May 19. There are 158 speakers and 62 different sessions across a day and a half, sometimes with five sessions running at once.
We’re so glad to have a full agenda our event taking place from May 18-19 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles. This is our 18th annual event and the second GBS event we’re hosting as an independent media company. You can use the code GBSreg25 for 25% off.
This post shows you how you can prioritize sessions as you attend the event by highlighting the talks as organized along track categories. Our overall theme is how gaming can navigate the future and overcome the challenges facing it, such as stealing back time for gaming in the attention war with the addiction industries from YouTube to gambling.
But there are plenty of subthemes and subtexts to notice in our programming. And so it may be helpful to see the schedule at a glance based on our tracks, which I’ve divided into ten types.
Our categories include game marketing and advertising (a new one for us this year with 8 sessions), AI and tech (7 sessions), entertainment (5), games business (23), games finance (3), games development (7), awards (2), women in gaming (3), game culture (2) and game legends (2). That’s 62 sessions, but it’s worth noting some are marked in more than one category.
Here are the different categories with sessions listed in chronological order from the start of the conference to the end. I hope this helps you focus on what you want to attend.
Welcome remarks
1:00-1:10 pm Monday — Gerard “Hiphop Gamer” Williams, Kahlief Adams, Dean Takahashi and Gina Joseph
9:20-9:30 am Tuesday Alex Lee and Gerard “Hiphop Gamer” Williams
Games marketing/advertising
2:30-3:00 pm Monday —How 2K Leveraged Creator Advocates to Support the Release of Borderlands 4 — Alex Lee, Jennifer Zall, Joshua Maresca, Jonathan “Totally Tubular Jonathan” Friedenberg (Malibu/Santa Monica)
2:30-3 pm Monday — The influence and impact of UGC: Platform power and the fight for player engagement — Kerri Norton, Kahlief Adams (Venice/Peninsula)
3:00-3:30 pm Monday — The Creator Convergence: How the UGC Creator World is Taking Cues From Traditional Influencer Marketing — Christopher Mann, Kevin Marciano, Sam DiMascio and Alex Lee (Palisades)
3:30-4:00 pm Monday — Steam Wishlisting and New Rewarded Discovery Strategies — Hugh Kim, Nikki DePaola, Bonnka Lim and Alex Lee (Promenade)
3:30-4:00 pm Monday — The Battle for Attention: How Games Stay Culturally Relevant — Eli Harris, Gae-Charles Costantini, Cara LaForge, Mia Ginae Watkins, Tanesha Graham (Palisades)
4:30-5:00 pm Monday — At the crossroads of culture: How brands can leverage gaming to build cohesive advertising campaigns — Max Bass, Samantha Lim, Justin Miclat and Alex Lee (Promenade)
4:30-5:00 pm Monday — Always On: How Battlefield Is Leaning Into UGC Through Custom Portal Experiences — Mitchell Inkrott, Yoni Ginsberg, Henry Coxall and Kaare Eriksen (Venice/Peninsula)
10:00-10:30 am Tuesday — From Server Slam to Streaming Sensation: How Embark Studios Used Twitch to Amplify the Launch of Arc Raiders — Mike Minton, Ashley St. Germain, Joe Raysinger and Alex Lee (Promenade room)
AI and tech
1:50-2:20 pm Monday — Game development in the AI era — Owen Mahoney, Michael Pachter (Bayview room)
2:30-3:30 pm Monday — ROUNDTABLE #1: Best use cases of AI in Game Development — Rich Vogel (Catalina)
3:30-4:00 pm Monday — AI Law: What every creator using AI should know — Dan Lee Rogers (Malibu/Santa Monica)
10:30-11:30 am Tuesday — ROUNDTABLE: How to Use AI in Games Without Losing the Plot — Piero Molino (Malibu/Santa Monica room)
10:30-11 am Tuesday — Game Legends: RJ Mical. From early game tech to AI — RJ Mical and Elizabeth Olson (Venice/Peninsula room)
12:00-12:30 pm Tuesday — Persistent Companions: How Player Interaction Shapes Evolving Digital Characters — Lars-Erick Ravn (Venice/Peninsula room)
3:30-4:00 pm Tuesday — Beyond the Hype: ML, GenAI, and What Actually Works in Games — Leo Olebe, Luke Dicken, Jon Radoff, Veronica Orvalho (California ballroom)
Entertainment
3:00-3:30 pm Monday — Blurring the Lines of Games and Entertainment — Kaare Eriksen, Sally Umsted, John Jelley, Eric Berman (Promenade)
3:00- 3:30 pm Monday — The Connected TV Opportunity for Games and Entertainment — Jamil Moledina, Isaac Sunsted, Andre Swanston and John Gaeta (Venice/Peninsula)
10:30-11:00 am Tuesday — The Intersection of Game Street and Hollywood Blvd — Mike Goldberg, Dmitri Johnson, Jason Altman and Courtney LaBarge Bell
2:00-2:30 pm Tuesday — From Signing to Filming — Mike Goldberg, Alden Dalia, Austin Vaziri and Briana Hill (Promenade)
3:00-3:30 pm Tuesday — The New Media Infrastructure: Navigating the Intersection of Global Entertainment | Video Games + Music — Jayo, Gerard “Hiphop Gamer” Williams, B. Howard and Juan Miroz (Promenade room)
Games business
1:10-1:50 pm Monday — Lessons and Inspirations — Jenova Chen/Michael Metzger (Bayview room)
2:30-3 pm Monday — Building Games as Systems: Designing for Evolution, Not Just Launch — Mark Stanley, Leanne Loombe, Ben Granados, Nanea Reeves (Promenade room)
3:30-4:30 pm Monday — Ethical Games: How to actively make the game industry a force for good — Celia Hoden, Jenova Chen, Jessica Murrey and Dean Takahashi (Venice/Peninsula)
4:00-4:30 pm Monday — From Competition to Connection: How Riot views Publishing and Esports as its global fandom engine — John Needham, Alex Lee (Promenade)
4:00-4:30 pm Monday — Crimson Desert: Launching a Triple-A Game Like an Indie Publisher — Will Powers (Malibu/Santa Monica)
4:30-5:00 pm Monday — Discovery is the Product: Why Audience Acquisition Must Be Built From Day One — Ryan Ward, Vicki Dobbs Bech, Aaron Sisto and Josh English
5:00-5:30 pm Monday — What Tencent thinks about the future of gaming — Tian Xiao and Dean Takahashi
5:00-5:30 pm Monday — Innovation in Console Gaming for Youth, Families and Active Play for Global Markets — Tom Kang and Lisa Cosmas Hanson
Day 2
9:30-10:00 am Tuesday — State of Play: A Global and UAE Perspective — Dean Takahashi, Berkley Egenes aand Faisal Kazim (California ballroom)
11:00-11:30 am Tuesday — Creating the Operating System for Community‑Driven Games — Uri Marchand and Dean Takahashi (California ballroom)
11:00-11:30 am Tuesday — Building Connected Play at Scale: How Electronic Arts Is Redefining Player Networks — Joe Traverso
11:30-12:00 pm Tuesday — The New Face of Publishing — Adam Orth, John Davison (Promenade)
11:30-12:00 pm Tuesday — Building World-Class Game Teams Across Borders: Scaling Culture, Quality, and Execution. And Why F2P Still Wins over Web3 Ownership — Ammar Zaeem (Venice/Peninsula room)
12:00-12:30 pm Tuesday — One Year Post-Acquisition: Driving Growth Through Community and Real-World Play — Jessica Zestar-Postrk, Michael Steranka and Rachel Kaser
12:30-1:00 pm Tuesday — GB MAX Private AMA with GamesBeat writers — Dean Takahashi, Rachel Kaser and Alex Lee (Bayview room)
1:00-1:30 pm Tuesday — The Next Generation of Play — Julie Camaraza, Desiree Bragg, Anne Shoemaker and Sue Madden (California ballroom during lunch)
1:30-2:00 pm Tuesday — The State of FPS Games: Past, Present and Future — Chris Stone, Glen Schofield and Dean Takahashi (California Ballroom; Q&A continues 2-2:30 pm in Sinder courtyard)
1:30-2:30 pm Tuesday — ROUNDTABLE Adapting UGC content to other platforms — Marcus Holmstrom, Brendan Stock and Montana Sommese (Malibu/Santa Monica)
2:00-2:30 pm Tuesday — From Clips to Communities: Driving Discovery and Growth in an Era of Maturation — Alexandra Takei, Ken Colton and Alex Lee (California Ballroom)
2:30-3:00 pm Tuesday — From Discovery to Loyalty: How Player Relationships Are Rewriting Growth and Monetization — Liam Wiltshire, Alex Lee, Zander Brumbaugh and Mathia Norvig (California ballroom)
2:30-3:00 pm Tuesday — Living the Live Ops Dream — Sheloman Byrd (Venice/Peninsula)
3:00-3:30 pm Tuesday — Dungeons & Dragons, Beyond the Table — Dan Ayoub and Anjali Bhimani (California ballroom)
4:00-4:30 pm Tuesday — Compliance While You Code: Agentic Workflows to Launch Global on Day One — Mike Mongeau and Maggie Zheng (California ballroom)
Games finance
4:00-4:30 pm Monday — New and Emergent Financing for Games and Start-ups — Eric Goldberg, Justin Berenbaum, Justin Yuan, Dara Willoughby (Palisades)
10:00-10:30 am Tuesday — A Brave New World of Game Publishing — Dan Bunting, Adam Boyes (California Ballroom)
1:30-2:00 pm Tuesday — The M&A Boom in Gaming and the Strategies of the Future — Hemal Thaker, Rob Ricca, Greg Richardson and Edward Williams (Promenade room)
Game development
3:00-3:30 pm Monday — From Playtest to Launch: Turning Players into Your Best Marketing Channel — Eden Chen (Malibu/Santa Monica)
12:00-12:30 pm — Small Team, Big Impact: The Next Wave of Game Development — Colin Dunatov, Greg Hayes, Andrew Bereza and Jim Greer (Promenade room)
1:30-2:00 pm Tuesday — Storytelling Through Sound: How Audio Is Shaping the Future of Games — Chris Battaglia, Eric Marks, Daniel Birczynski and Rachel Kaser (Venice/Peninsula room)
2:00-2:30 pm Tuesday — How External Development is Becoming a Big Part of Triple-A Game Production — Kay Arutyunyan, Anna Siaredzich, Mihai Pohontu and Yoshio Osaki (Venice/Peninsula)
2:30- 3:00 pm Tuesday — The Future of Game Dev Talent: A Prequel — Jen MacLean, Amir Satvat, Ninel Anderson and Andrea Rene (Promenade room)
2:30-3:30 pm Tuesday — ROUNDTABLE: The Emotional Equity Audit: Golden Rules for IP Longevity — Oleksa Lozowchuk, Joe Zanetti, Mike Jones and Jesse Alexander (Malibu/Santa Monica room)
3:30-4:00 pm Tuesday — Why Replayability is Key to Long-Term Success of Modern Games — Mike Booth and Andrea Rene
Awards
5:30-6:00 pm Monday — BOSS Mode Awards (for Women in Gaming) — California Ballroom
4:30-5:00 pm Tuesday — Visionary Awards — California Ballroom
Women in Gaming
3:30-4:30 pm Monday — ROUNDTABLE #2: Women in Games: The Spill on Community — Christina Drake, Marie Ablaza, Jay-ann Lopez, Sarah Parvini and Martina Santoro (Bayview Terrace on 10th Floor)
5:30-6:00 pm Monday — BOSS Mode Awards (for Women in Gaming) — California Ballroom
8:50-9:20 am Tuesday — Driving Results: Leadership Strategies from Women in Games (BOSS Mode) — Rachel Kaser, Zoe Bell, Leanne Loombe, Amanda Kruse, Sophia Lisaius (California ballroom)
Game culture
10:30-11:00 am Tuesday — Winning the Cultural Zeitgeist: A Fireside Chat with Mathias Gredal Nørvig, CEO of SYBO — Mathias Norvig and Alex Lee (Promenade room)
11:30-12 pm Tuesday — Gaming for Good: Great Power = Great Responsibility — Mathias Norvig, Faisal Kim, Jude Ower and Susanna Pollack (California ballroom)
Game legends
11:00-11:30 am Tuesday — The Games Crash of 1983: Can It Happen Again? — Don Daglow (Venice/Peninsula)
(Also see RJ Mical in AI/tech)