This year’s GamesBeat Crossfire was all about the balance of power in gaming.
Our debate-focused event went down on Tuesday, March 10, during the week of Game Developers Conference 2026 in San Francisco. There was certainly no shortage of power in the room — from the standing-room-only crowd of over 500 attendees to a roster of speakers that included voices like “PUBG” creator Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene and former Electronic Arts chief creative officer Rich Hilleman. The six speaker sessions at the event ran the full gamut of hot industry topics, from the relationship between platforms and developers to the urgency of the opportunities created by emerging technologies like user-generated content and AI.
“This tech is like a calculator — super useful if you know maths, but you still need people to guide this world,” said Greene of the AI opportunity in 2026. “This just allows you to create a lot quicker.”
The event was capped off by a panel explicitly covering the topic of power and how it has shifted in the industry in recent years, featuring the voices of Xsolla chief marketing and growth officer Berkley Egenes and Signum Growth Capital and AD8 Pop chief executive officer Angela Dalton. The closing panel was moderated by Dean Takahashi, who used the time to tie together some of the disparate themes covered in the preceding sessions.
“There’s a continual evolution that’s going to continue to happen in our industry,” Egenes said. “We’re going to keep evolving; we’re going to keep resetting. We’re going to keep trying different things.”
GamesBeat Crossfire was emceed by industry veteran Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, who flew to San Francisco specifically for Crossfire — and then announced his new role as a community development advisor for Commodore the following day.
Stay tuned today, tomorrow and Monday for more recap coverage of GDC and GamesBeat Crossfire, including insights from specific debates and speaking sessions at the event.