Our GamesBeat Next 2026 event is a month away and we’ve got a number of good talks cooking for the event on November 2-3 in San Francisco at the Convene event center.
The event will start around 1 p.m. on November 2 and run through 530 p.m., followed by a reception. It will resume at 8 a.m. with our latest women in gaming breakfast and then continue on through 5 p.m. We still need some sponsors for some of the key aspects of the event so please send a message if you wish to be a sponsor.
We’ve been inviting speakers to address our theme of gaming, technology and entertainment leaders to build what’s next for the $200 billion interactive economy. We’ve been doing this event for many years, but this year’s timing couldn’t be better.
Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to command unprecedented global attention when it releases on November 19 — a moment that could reshape the business, culture and economics of interactive entertainment. (Our own Alex Lee quizzed Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick about the launch at our first New York event last month).
We’ll be asking — how do we move from this moment on to something historic and memorable? We tapped 28 new GamesBeat event advisers to help us curate the content for this edition of GamesBeat Next. We’ve got at least 41 sessions happening at GamesBeat Next to give you some of the answers for what is coming next in the game industry.
Here’s some of the talks where we have both titles and descriptions ready to go. Most of the sessions take place on the second day of the event. But we’re spreading the great sessions around as much as we can. Our topics run across themes including AI, other tech, finance, business models, the attention economy and the creator revolution.
Day one
Game Legends: Remembering the past and predicting our future
We’ve got a dream panel of veterans who ran big gaming platforms at Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sega, Unity and Electronic Arts. (OK, those last four are all Peter Moore). The session is based on something I witnessed 25 years ago at E3, when the leaders of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo bantered with each other on one panel. We’ll recall some good-natured memories about the competition, but we’ll emphasize their view of the current game industry and what their experience tells them about what will unfold in the future. Don’t miss this opener.
Shawn Layden, Former Chairman of PlayStation Worldwide Studios
Peter Moore, Executive, Formerly Unity, Microsoft, EA, Sega
Doug Bowser, Former President/COO of Nintendo of America, and current Independent Board member of the Hasbro Company
MODERATOR: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat
Fandom Is Always On — Brands Need to Be Too
Games have become one of the places where modern fandom lives, a space where people don’t just consume entertainment, but participate in it, compete, create, connect, and build communities that persist far beyond any single moment. From the rituals and rivalries of sports fandom to the deeply engaged communities around franchises like Apex Legends and Battlefield, games give brands an opportunity to become part of the experiences and cultures audiences return to every day. In this session, Andrea Hopelain, SVP of Marketing, will explore how the shift from passive audiences to active communities is reshaping what it means to build relevance with fans. She’ll discuss how brands can create lasting value across gameplay, creator ecosystems, live services, and community-driven experiences.
Andrea Hopelain, SVP marketing, Electronic Arts
MODERATOR: Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat
World-building Beyond Gameplay: From Screen to Space (roundtable)
As blockbuster games become more elaborate, audiences no longer encounter an IP through a single screen or format; they experience the same world across gameplay, cinematics, VR, social platforms, live environments, and increasingly immersive public spaces.
Territory Studio would explore how a coherent visual and narrative language can carry a game world across those different experiences, drawing on work including 007 First Light, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Batman: Arkham Shadow, plus gaming-world activations such as Fortnite x Kai Cenat at the Las Vegas Sphere and Chromebook x Cyberpunk 2077 in Times Square.
The central question: when a game world can exist anywhere, how do you design an experience audiences never want to leave?
Marty Romances, Creative Director, Territory
AI-native game development: Making games that can only be made with AI (onstage, followed by a roundtable)
What happens when game characters can interpret a player’s intent, improvise, and change course when plans fall apart? LLM-driven decision making opens up new possibilities for companions, rivals, and virtual teammates—but which will make games more compelling?
This panel brings together AI technologists, developers, and studio leaders to explore agentic gameplay’s creative potential and practical limits. Games demand ultra-low latency responses, players interrupt actions, and the world keeps changing while an AI decides what to do. How can characters keep up while developers retain creative control?
The conversation will connect new ways to play with the realities of production, inference costs, and scale, helping attendees assess which experiences are worth building and where agentic behavior can deliver lasting value for players and studios.
Brian Tanner, CEO, Artificial Agency
Piero Molino, CEO, Studio Atelico
Jon Snoddy, CEO, Operative Games
MODERATOR: Jamil Moledina, Venture Partner, Principal Venture Partners
Mobile Mogul Awards
GamesBeat Next day one reception
Day 2
Boss Mode breakfast panel
Anne Shoemaker, CEO, Fullflower Studio
Kimberly Pointer Corbett, Founder, UltraLayer
Karin Johnson, Magic Potion Games
TBD
MODERATOR: Rachel Kaser, News Writer, GamesBeat
Seeing the optimism and opportunities in games in spite of years of layoffs
Amir Satvat and Ed Fries have built their views of gaming on very different experiences and even different data sources. Yet they believes in the upward power of gaming and see real opportunities, even though the industry has seen years of layoffs and studio closures. Where are the opportunities and how will games win the attention war? Now that Satvat and Fries are together at 1Up Ventures, we’ll try to get at the nuances behind their views and point out trends for the industry.
Amir Satvat, General Partner, 1Up Ventures
Ed Fries, General Partner, 1Up Ventures
MODERATOR: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat
The Next Billion Gamers Are Families: Building a Global Gaming Platform Parents Can Trust
The next frontier of gaming isn’t another demographic of hardcore gamers. It’s the family—and winning that market requires rebuilding the gaming proposition around trust, movement, co-play and globally relevant content.
Trust is the prerequisite for growth. As gaming reaches younger kids and becomes more central to family life, safety/privacy/age-appropriate design can’t just be compliance functions. They become product and brand strategy. Sports are the bridge to the whole family. NFL FLAG Heroes gives you a fresh, concrete example of expanding beyond younger children toward teens and parents…with more to come in sports Heroes franchise.
Global expansion is the proof point. What does it actually take to build a family gaming platform across the U.S., UK, Germany, Japan, Korea, etc.? It’s not merely translating games—you need local IP, local partners, culturally relevant content, local business models and locally appropriate trust/safety.
Tom Kang, President, Nex
MODERATOR: Dean Takahashi (or can be replaced)
How the mammals of gaming can survive and thrive
In the wake of the pandemic and a few years of layoffs, a new way of making games and getting them to market is emerging. Perhaps it’s time for the mammals to take over from the giant dinosaurs.
Chris Stone, Studio General Manager, VOID Interactive
Oliver Bulloss, CEO, MTG
TJ Consunji, cofounder at Miniboss
The New Launch Playbook: Building Attention, Community, and Momentum Without a Blockbuster Budget
The old (pre-2021!) game-launch model had been built around a relatively simple proposition: secure a publisher that had the capital, infrastructure and distribution power to bring a game to market… or take on the full burden on yourself. In 2026, that binary no longer reflects how many games are actually launched.
Studios now have access to a wider ecosystem of specialist partners, fractional expertise, creator and community programs, targeted communications, platform opportunities and modular marketing support. But more options also create more questions: What should a team own internally? When does outside help create genuine leverage? How do you build audience momentum before launch (and sustain it after) without confusing activity for impact?
In this informative, interactive roundtable, Greg Off and Chris Kramer will lead a practical discussion about launch models available to teams working without blockbuster-scale budgets. Drawing on their work across strategic communications, creator partnerships, influencer programs and dozens of game launches from indie to AAA, they will explore the choices behind self-publishing, traditional publishing, and the increasingly important middle ground between them.
Greg Off, CEO, Off Base
Chris Kramer, VP of PR & Influencer Relations, Off Base
Using games as evaluation tools for AI
Arkadium has figured out how to provide its years of puzzle gaming data to evaluate the reasoning abilities of AI models. Our speakers will outline how games are being used to benchmark the progress that AI is making towards super intelligence or AGI. The session will have benchmarks to share about each of the popular AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok) and which ones perform better in different categories of intelligence. We’ll also see how these models do in a digital tournament.
Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO of Arkadium; special guest and Dean Takahashi (moderator)
Evidence of Us: Games, Culture, and Generative AI
Games are more than entertainment or even art – they are cultural artifacts, reflecting the values, assumptions, experiences, and creativity of the people who make them. But what happens when some of that creation is no longer human? As generative AI becomes embedded in game development, it challenges our ideas about authorship, creative intent, and cultural authenticity. If games are evidence of who we are, what happens when the worlds, stories, and characters within them are increasingly generated not by humans? This session explores what AI means for games as cultural artifacts, and asks: What do we want the games we leave behind to say about us?
Kate Edwards, CEO, Geogrify (solo talk)
Triple- A to Indie: Lessons Learned
Three leaders who once ran teams of hundreds/thousands inside the biggest studios in games now run teams under 30. The last three years pushed an unusual amount of senior AAA talent into founding, as studios closed and projects were cancelled. This panel brings together three people at different points on that curve to talk about what actually changed: the budget math, the financing conversations, the small core plus external partner model defining 2026, and what happens when the thing you are selling is no longer a game but a company. Honest, specific, and told by people still in it.
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
AI & The Next Era of Gaming
In this fireside chat, Dean Takahashi interviews Dr. Songyee Yoon, Founding Partner of Principal Venture Partners, on how AI is reshaping the way capital moves through gaming. Drawing on her rare end-to-end view of the industry — from her years as President and Chief Strategy Officer at NCSOFT to her current seat evaluating the early-stage AI-era startups vying for funding — Dean and Songyee dig into what’s changed in gaming and AI over the years, what she’s watching for as an investor, and where she thinks the opportunities are in a landscape where every startup now has an AI offering.
Songyee Yoon, Founding Partner, Principal Venture Partners
MODERATOR: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat
The New Discovery Funnel: Building and Monetizing Fandom
Every entertainment company wants to build fandom, but relatively few understand what creates it — or how to measure and monetize it. In this session, Fandom CEO Jay Sullivan and Creativ Company CEO Wes Morton will create a working definition of fandom in 2026, breaking down the signals that can tell a company how and where its fans are congregating, as well as how to nurture and act on that fandom. The discussion will dig into the similarities and differences between gaming fandom and other forms of fandom, exploring how studios and publishers are leveraging fan platforms and communities to keep their games in front of consumers’ eyes in an increasingly challenging discovery and retention landscape.
Jay Sullivan, CEO, Fandom
Wes Morton, CEO of Creativ
MODERATOR: Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat
The significance of the Talent Agency Act and what it means for games
This session will focus on entertainment law and its relation to talent. We’ll look at where it has been historically, weave that into a conversation of how entertainment law impacts the creator marketing industry now, and how it needs to be navigated in the future. The session will draw on the historical landscape of Hollywood, how things like the Talent Agency Act were brought into being, and bridge that into a conversation of how it actually applies to creator marketing in games (and beyond), as well as where we collectively need to be as a result.
Moderator: Alex Lee, lead news writer at GamesBeat; Andy Lunique (triple-A creator expert), Noah Downs (creator/nidustry lawyer); Alex Owen, marketing lawyer; George DePree
The Flexible Publishing Playbook – How Independent Experts Are Replacing the All-or-Nothing Publishing Deal
A panel on the emerging space of flexible publishing services, featuring three practitioners who built their careers inside AAA publishers and now bring that same caliber of expertise directly to developers and smaller publishers who need the resources more than ever to gain attention and stand out in an incredibly competitive marketplace.
Adam Krause, Founder & Managing Partner, Miniboss Solutions
Mart Gervacio, Tadhana Interactive – release management;
Shelby Cox, Platform Edge (ex PlayStation) – first-party partnerships – PlayStation, Xbox, and platform deal structuring
MODERATOR: Sarah Anderson, Marketing Executive and Advisor
Getting to know GamesBeat and its community
GB MAX roundtable AMA. GamesBeat’s writers talk with GB MAX members about their views of the gaming world and journalism.
Alex Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat
Rachel Kaser, News Writer, GamesBeat
Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat
Players Don’t Need Another Gaming Platform
Join Jeff Gattis, Head of Gaming at Amazon, for a candid fireside chat on how games are becoming part of the platform’s cohesive entertainment ecosystem. Nearly one year after Amazon unified its games organization and reimagined its approach to gaming, the conversation will explore the company’s move to bring games to Prime Video and why the next era of growth may come from creating lower-friction access for entirely new audiences. Topics will include whether the next major games platform needs to be a console; how streaming can reduce friction and help solve gaming’s discovery challenge; how entertainment IP can deepen engagement across games, film, television, and fandom; how emerging technologies such as AI are enabling new ways to play; and how streaming platforms can complement the existing games ecosystem.
Jeff Gattis, Head of Gaming, Amazon
MODERATOR: Alexander Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat
The Production Pivot: Rebuilding How We Build Games
Rich Vogel
Richard Browne, director at Blue Moon Productions
Jen Maclean, CEO of Dragon Snacks Studios
MODERATOR: Benjamin Carcich, principal and founder at Valarin
D2C: The next generation of mobile monetization
It’s an exciting time for the game industry as new regulations and court rulings are enabling direct-to-consumer pathways in mobile. How much of a game company’s revenues can come from this direct relationship with players?
Conor McLaughlin, CMO, Aghanim
More speakers TBD
MODERATOR: Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director, GamesBeat
Building the playbook for daily casual game development
In 2026, many gamers’ primary engagement with the medium comes through daily casual games, yet there still isn’t a standard playbook for daily casual game development. Instead, leaders in the space have staked out different facets of daily casual gaming, from the New York Times’ expertise in word games to LinkedIn’s focus on logic games and Yahoo’s work with third-party game studios. This panel will feature the executives defining the gaming strategy for these platforms, with the goal of comparing and contrasting their approaches to daily casual game development in order to better understand the best practices for the format — and how traditional game developers can learn from its rise.
Jonathan Knight, Chief Games Officer, The New York Times
Helen Smith, Head of Games, LinkedIn
Andrew Pedersen, Head of Games, Yahoo
MODERATOR: Alexander Lee, Lead News Writer, GamesBeat
Full Throttle: Corsair on Gaming, Creators and Sim Racing
Thi La, CEO of Corsair, and Michael Metzger, Managing Partner at Drake Star, will talk about the next wave of innovation in gaming peripherals, the explosive growth of the creator community, sim racing’s rise into the mainstream, and how AI is reshaping PC gaming. They will also discuss the industry’s key growth segments and how Corsair approaches partnerships, investments, and acquisitions to grow its portfolio.
Thi La, CEO, Corsair
MODERATOR: Michael Metzger, Managing Partner, Drake Star Partners
What Can the Game Industry Learn from UGC Developers
UGC platforms allow small teams to achieve massive scale with minimal funding, creating a new generation of developers designing from a different playbook. What does that mean for the future of the games and entertainment industry?
Evan Zirschky, Founder, Turning Tables Games
Steve Chiang, President, Fortis Games
Saxs Persson, VP, Horizon, Meta
MODERATOR: Maureen Fan, CEO & Co-founder, Baobab Studios
Building for decades, not daily engagement
Much of the industry is focused on maximizing short-term engagement and retention. ArenaNet has long taken a different approach, dating back to the original Guild Wars and its decision to buck the prevailing MMO model by launching without a required monthly subscription. That philosophy continues today: ArenaNet is focused on building fans for life, not worrying about keeping players attached to a game 100% of the time. It gives players the confidence to step away, live their lives, play something else, and come back when they’re ready, with that long-term relationship shaping everything from game design and player experience to the business model.
And that approach is working. The franchise has built a passionate community over more than two decades. The original Guild Wars is still receiving major updates today, Guild Wars 2 remains highly active, and Guild Wars 3 is now in full development. Excitement for what comes next is also high, with Guild Wars 3 emerging from Summer Game Fest as one of the event’s most-wishlisted upcoming games, demonstrating the appetite ArenaNet has built for the franchise across generations of players.
Colin Johanson, Studio Head, ArenaNet
MODERATOR: Rachel Kaser, News Writer, GamesBeat
The Future of Co-Development: How We Build Games Next
As game development spans more studios, disciplines, and borders, how must the way we work evolve? Streamline CEO and co-founder Alexander Fernandez explores how distributed teams can operate as one accountable production system. Drawing on 25 years of experience, he examines the role of AI and global talent, why human judgment remains essential, and what studios and publishers must change to make collaboration work. A practical look at game-development orchestration, grounded in production realities and lessons from the Global South and beyond.
Alex Fernandez, CEO of Streamline Studios
Leveraging your presence as a traditional creator for UGC development
Ann Shoemaker
Lachyz
ZyroMC
Alex Lee (moderator)
Alternative financing for games
Gaming is becoming a mature industry and there’s been a big drop in investment capital from the 2020-2022 peak. So alternative financing options are now on the rise. This panel, a follow-up on a session from GamesBeat Summit, will focus on financing methods that go beyond the previous norms. A panel of experts across different sectors of the new game financing landscape will describe key funding paths available to game startups plus practical insights on the right mix for your studio’s goals and stage.
Greg Richardson, Managing Partner, Juno Capital
Jerry Ye, Partner, Bitkraft Ventures
TBD
MODERATOR: Eric Goldberg, Co-founder, Playable Worlds
Fun or Addictive? Addressing warranted concerns while avoiding moral panics around video games
Video games are an art form and they are meant to entertain people. As such, they put psychological and physical pressure on players to elicit fun and engagement. But certain business models can also put pressure on players to encourage retention and conversion. When does this pressure cross ethical lines and need to be addressed? What can we do to encourage better practices in the game industry while keeping our business afloat? This talk proposes to identify the evidence-based warranted concerns regarding video games while debunking the moral panics, often supported by pseudoscience (and “neurobullshit”). It also discusses what an ethical framework could look like in the game industry, from the perspective of cognitive science and human factors psychology (UX), and why adopting such a framework would not only be beneficial for players, but also for the long-term viability of studios and publishers.
Celia Hodent, Game User Experience Strategist and author of the The Gamer’s Brain
Investment pitches: Live session with startups and investors
Devin Maa of Denmu; Rachel Chai from The Mini Fund; Jared Yeager, Frame1Games
Additional speakers TBD
Here’s also some speakers that we have booked for the event but we’re still working out titles and description for their talks.
Alexandra Takei, VP of platform, revenue and games at Medal
Glen Fiedler, CEO of Network Next
Andy Tsen, CEO of Ramen
Tammy McDonald, chief business officer at Distinct Possibility Studios, (on external development and AI)
Patrick Sweeney, founder of Interactive Entertainment Law Group
Ryan Wiancko, the Founder and CEO of Ironbelly Studios
Leo Matlock
Shawn Barrett, Vice President XR Immersive Design/ Activation Partnerships at TCL Chinese Theater
More TBD
Sponsors/partners
We’re grateful to have the support of our partners/sponsors including:
Overwolf/Tebex
Arkadium
ThinkingAI
Aghanim
Medal
Void Interactive
Miniboss
Artificial Agency
Creativ
GamesBeat event advisory board
Our GamesBeat event advisory board includes
Adam Boyes, founder of Vivrato
Lisa Cosmas Hanson, president of Niko Partners
Don Daglow, CEO of Sausalito Games
Peter Levin, managing partner, Griffin Gaming Partners
Sibel Sunar, CEO of Fortyseven
Tara Bruno, founder of Tara Bruno PR
David Hoppe, managing partner at Gamma Law
Tammy McDonald, chief business officer at Distinct Possibility Studios
Mike DeLaet, CEO of Ares Interactive
Noah Falstein, director of experience design at George Lucas Educational Foundation
Mike Vorhaus, founder of Vorhaus Advisors
Eric Goldberg, cofounder of Playable Worlds
Michael Metzger, managing partner at Drake Star Partners
Elizabeth Olson, owner of Strategic Marketing
Perrin Kaplan, cofounder of Zebra Partners
Sarah Anderson, former chief marketer at Amazon Games
Maureen Fan, CEO of Baobab
Gordon Bellamy, professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media & Games at the University of Southern California
Cooper Jackson, SVP of business development at EA
Susan Cummings, CEO of 10six Games
Jeane Wong, CEO One PR
Alexander Fernandez, CEO of Streamline Studios
Jonathan Knight, senior vice president and head of games at the New York Times
Kate Edwards, CEO of Geogrify
Susanna Pollack, president of Games for Change
Jeff Karp, independent adviser and board member; former exec at Zynga, EA and more
Jay-Ann Lopez, founder and CEO of Black Girl Gamers
Moonlit Beshimov, Head of Gaming & Apps, Strategic Partnerships and Industry Solutions
Mobile Mogul Awards judges
Our judges for the Mobile Mogul Awards include:
Careen Yapp, chief strategic partnerships director at Embracer Group
Jeff Karp, independent director and adviser, former mobile gaming exec at Zynga, EA etc.
Dean Takahashi, editorial director at GamesBeat
Gina Joseph, CEO at GamersBeat
Alex Lee, lead news writer at GamesBeat
Rachel Kaser, GamesBeat writer
Moonlit Beshimov, Head of Gaming & Apps, Strategic Partnerships and Industry Solutions
Erika Winterholler, head of business development for digital gaming at Mattel
Scott Koenigsberg, CPO at Zynga
Jules Shumaker, chief business officer at Discord
Steven Chiang, president at Fortis Games
Nick Earl, former CEO of Glu Mobile, current board member at SciPlay and Powerlaw
Community partners
Our community partners include:
AGSC.gg
The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (GEMA)
Black in Gaming Foundation
Games for Change
Games for Love
IGDA Foundation
Video Game Bar Association
Moms in Gaming
WIGI
Women X AI
Women-led Games
ThinkLA
BAFTA
Firstboard.io
Zebra Partners
Latinx in Gaming
Midwest Games
Pocket Gamer Connects
Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH)
Black Girl Gamers
Collegiate Games Challenge
DICE/AIAS
Finally, thanks to the GamesBeat team that has done a lot of work to make this possible.