Battle Royal
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The DeanBeat: Welcome to the Battle Royal

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 6 min

The Battle Royal, the name for our conference theme for GamesBeat 2013, will be under way in just 11 days. I’m proud to say we’ve lined up the best slate of speakers we’ve ever had to show us the way ahead in the tumultuous and diverse game industry.

Just this week, Japan’s SoftBank and GungHo Entertainment (the maker of Puzzle & Dragons) bought 51 percent of Helsinki-based Supercell for $1.5 billion. Supercell, who made the popular Clash of Clans, was valued at just $770 million back in March, but now it’s supposedly worth a cool $3 billion. And rumors are rife that London’s King (Candy Crush Saga) will stage an initial public offering that could be valued at $5 billion.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

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.