Looking forward to high-level insights at GamesBeat Next 2024 | The DeanBeat

I’m looking forward to GamesBeat Next 2024 on Monday October 28 and Tuesday October 29 in San Francisco.

We’ve got a lot of speakers who can deliver high-level insights into the state of the game business, which has had seemingly contradictory strong financial results, unpredictable game successes and 32,000 layoffs in the past three years.

In spite of the industry uncertainty, we’ve got more than 600 people signed up and are expecting it to be sold out. Among those folks are 150 CEOs and other top leaders of the industry. We have 97 speakers, and 65% of them come from diverse backgrounds. And 41% are women. We have 42 onstage sessions and roundtables.

We expect hundreds of women to come for the event, which includes our ninth Women in Gaming Breakfast. Thank you for supporting us, as we know everyone is feeling pressure and mental stress these days. That’s why we stay together.

You can see our updated final agenda here. Our event is virtually sold out.

Our event theme is all about getting back to growth, not just with growth in revenues and players, but with growth in jobs for game developers as well. We’ll talk about the shifting sands we see, from changes in game engine technology for developers to the rise of creators in game marketing.

I’m glad to have returning speakers who can give us a new milestone in gaming’s progress toward big goals like the metaverse and interoperability. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, is coming back in a prerecorded virtual conversation that catches us up on our 2021 talk in the midst of the pandemic. We will cover the progress on the path to the open metaverse and the evolution of Unreal and Fortnite.

Speaking of the metaverse, another returnee speaker is Neal Stephenson, the creator of the word “metaverse” and author of Snow Crash, the sci-fi novel from 30 years ago. He will talk in a fireside chat on “The science fiction future that we want.”

Riz Virk, leader of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University is a simulation theory expert. He will be joining me on stage to quiz Stephenson about his views on the metaverse today and his thoughts for the future, especially as technology makes so much of sci-fi more real. Stephenson has a historical sci-fi book, Polostan, out now and he is a cofounder of the startups Whenere, focused on AI and storytelling, and Lamina1, on blockchain solutions for creators.

We also have Shawn Layden, former chairman of Sony Interactive Studios, and Christina Macedo, CEO of Play, talk about how focusing on making good games is crucial — and what they’re doing to support them with Web3 technology. And while our event is about technology, their talk is the only one among the sessions focused on blockchain, which is very different from what we’ve had before.

Our first day also includes a walk down memory lane with Peter Moore, a longtime gaming executive who launched the Dreamcast for Sega in the U.S. 25 years ago. Moore, who recently averted a brush with death thanks to his Apple Watch, will talk about lessons for today from his past that includes leadership roles at Microsoft Xbox, Electronic Arts and Unity.

And Matthew Bromberg, the newly minted CEO of Unity, will speak in a virtual live session at the close of day one, where we’ll talk about making decisions in the wake of Unity’s Runtime Fee controversy, where the company introduced a new price increase and then walked it back.

The kickoff session will happen at 1:20 p.m. (registration opens at noon) on Monday with Entertainment Software Association CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis and Laura Naviaux Sturr, general manager of operations at Amazon Games. They will talk about new vectors for growth and extending intellectual property to new generations of audiences.

We’ll have multiple sessions talking about AI, but our dedicated AI and games panel will focus on ethical use of AI in game development and user-generated content. It will feature Pany Haritatos, CEO of Series Entertainment; Kent Keirsey, CEO of Invoke AI; Andy Mauro, CEO of Storycraft; and moderator Hilary Mason, CEO of Hidden Door.

Day 2 happenings

Our Women in Gaming Breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the second day of the event, and it features a fireside chat between GamesBeat writer Rachel Kaser and Dametra Johnson-Marletti Dametra corporate vice president of digital gaming within the Microsoft consumer sales organization. She has helped grow revenue in her division from $800 million to more than $7 billion.

They will talk about inspiring the next generation of leaders and luminaries in games and how culture and representation can play a role in attracting and nurturing the next generation of gamers and creatives wishing to work in the industry.

Johnson-Marletti plans to give some insight on building a career in gaming, and how major companies can foster and retain the talent that will become the next-generation leaders in the games industry. She’ll also cover diversity and inclusion, representation, and how both new workers and games companies can set the new wave of talent up for long-term success.

We’ll kick off into session with leaders of Xsolla, Electronic Arts and SciPlay talking about the best practices for mastering mobile monetization. Then we’ll drill deeper, breaking into three concurrent stages for talks related to the topics of culture, technology, growth and industry.

At lunch, we’ll gather for a panel on diversity in gaming, sponsored by Xsolla, where Xsolla vice president of marketing Bridget Stacy will lead a session on prioritizing inclusion during tough times with inspiring entrepreneurs including Sheloman Byrd, CEO of Open Ocean Games; Jessica Murrey, CEO of Wicked Saints Studios; and Jenny Xu, CEO of Talofa Games.

I’m sad I can’t mention everything, but we will hit important topics like alternative open source game engines like Godot, mental health and games where games can be considered medical treatments, millennial and GenZ gamers, pioneering VR concepts with leaders like Kerestell Smith of Gorilla Tag and pet game creator Bernard Yee, the future of game publishing, operating in an ethical way in an ambiguous time, gaming M&A and funding, analyzing games, game creators and discovery, direct-to-consumer stores, and creating transmedia IP at places like Netflix, Exploding Kittens and Sharon Tal Yguado’s Astrid Entertainment.

Toward the end, we’ll gather to hear Amy Hennig, co-president of new media at Skydance Interactive talk with other Skydance execs about welcoming people into your team. She’s got a big team making Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and is a veteran co-creator of the Uncharted series and more.

We also have a number of interesting roundtables. During one, Shelby Moledina, who has created a dark comedy short film about raising money for games when you’re a woman. I highly recommend the roundtables for those who want a more intimate experience at the event.

Game Changers session

To close the conference, Lightspeed and GamesBeat will announce the 2025 Game Changers—an annual list to celebrate and accelerate extraordinary startups in gaming and interactive technology. Lightspeed’s Moritz Baier-Lentz and l will start the session with insights from judges and past winners including Lisha Li, founder and CEO of Rosebud AI (past winner); Kylan Gibbs, CEO of Inworld AI; and Mihir Vaidya, chief sttrategy officer at Electronic Arts.

Then we will unveil the winners from each of the five key categories present live on stage: 3D technology & infrastructure, generative AI, game studios and UGC, interactive media platforms, and extended reality (AR and VR). Last year, Lightspeed showed the names of the winners on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square.

Our next events

And please remember we have a new event coming on gaming and its intersections with Hollywood, on December 12 in LA, the same day as The Game Awards. It’s called GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games. It features Brian Ward, CEO of Savvy Games Group; game adaptation film maker Ari Arad, industry seer Matthew Ball of Epyllion; Eunice Lee, Scopely COO; Dmitri Johnson of Story Kitchen and the man who has conspired to bring Sonic the Hedgehog and Lara Croft to film and TV; and Erika Ewing, a cross-media leader at Lionsgate.

And be sure to look out for our extended partnership with Xsolla on the GamesBeat Global Tour where we hold dinners in cities around the globe. This past year, we held dinners in Los Angeles, Austin, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, and Seattle. 

We’ve also got GamesBeat Summit 2025 returning to Los Angeles on May 19-20, 2025. 

Lastly, remember to come out of the virtual world long enough to see what’s happening in the real world. Remember to vote in this year’s presidential election. You can even do this at the headquarters of Jam City in LA, which is an actual polling place. 

We’re proud to have returning sponsors including Xsolla, Fastspring, Modulate, the Entertainment Software Association and Lightspeed as well as new sponsors such as Open World, Fastly, Ludeo, Lightspeed, RapidFire and Play. If you’d like to request sponsorship information, you can fill out this form.

Our community partners include Women-Led Games, IGDA Foundation and Black in Gaming Foundation.