California — and GamesBeat Next — here I come! | Kaser Focus

In case you’ve somehow missed it, GamesBeat is holding its Next event early next week in San Francisco. As always, I’ll be there, probably in a costume of some kind, to participate. If you’re interested in seeing what the future of games looks like and what some of the most interesting new ideas in the industry are shaping into, then come and join us! I’ll be moderating the Women in Gaming breakfast panel with several exceptional women in the industry, as well as a panel on mixed reality ahead of the Apple Vision Pro. Registration is still open here.

It’s been another week of layoff news, as Frontier Games and Zen Studios are the latest organizations to join the list. We also opened the week with the news that Bethesda’s Pete Hines is retiring, joining another list of major figures in the industry who are retiring. The industry is also still reeling from the finalization of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard King acquisition. Phil Spencer appeared on a podcast this week to speak about the acquisition, in which he said that Call of Duty exclusivity is a thing of the past.