Games are the stuff of fantasy. But making them is part of the real world. At next week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we’ll find out just how much the real world is going to intrude on the fantasy image we have of the video game industry as a wonderful thing. This time, developers are going to address some ugly truths — like sexism, Internet haters, racism, and homophobia — about their industry head-on.
Meggan Scavio of GDC.
The GDC will draw more than 23,000 attendees who want to understand the pulse of the industry. Prognosticators and craft experts — including, for some strange reason, me — will give talks about the state of the industry and its possible futures. At GDC, we learn what the industry cares about — or what it should care about. This year, the GDC’s leadership chose to put its “advocacy track” front and center in the hopes of generating honest conversation. Even the people who buy the less expensive “expo passes” may attend the advocacy sessions about the human side of the game business.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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