We look forward to high-level insights at GamesBeat Next 2024 | DeanBeat

i can’t wait GamesBeat Next 2024 Monday, October 28 and Tuesday, October 29 in San Francisco.

We have a host of speakers who can provide high-level insights into the state of the games business, which has seen seemingly contradictory strong financial results, unpredictable gaming successes and 32,000 layoffs over the past three years.

Despite the uncertainty in the industry, we have over 600 people signed up and expect it to sell out. These people include 150 CEOs and other top industry leaders. We have 97 speakers, and 65% of them come from diverse backgrounds. And 41% are women. We have 42 sessions and round tables on stage.

We expect hundreds of women to attend 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 practically sold out.

The theme of our event is about getting back to growth, not just growing revenue and players, but also growing jobs for game developers. We’ll talk about the shifting sands we’re seeing, 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 another milestone in gaming’s progress towards big goals like the metaverse and interoperability. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, returns in a pre-recorded virtual conversation that catches up with our 2021 speech in the midst of the pandemic. We’ll cover progress on the path to the open metaverse and the evolution of Unreal and Fortnite.

Speaking of the metaverse, another returning speaker is Neal Stephenson, coiner of the word “metaverse” and author of Snow Crash, the sci-fi novel from 30 years ago. He will be speaking in a fireside chat about “The Science Fiction Future We Want.”

Riz Virk, the leader of the Center for Science and Imagination at Arizona State University is an expert in simulation theory. He’ll join me on stage to ask Stephenson about his thoughts 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, and is the co-founder of startups Whenere, focused on artificial intelligence and story, and Lamina1, on blockchain solutions for creators.

We also have Shawn Layden, former president of Sony Interactive Studios, and Christina Macedo, CEO of Play, talk about how critical it is to focus on making good games – and what they’re doing to support them with Web3 technology . And while our event is about technology, their talk is the only one of 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 long-time game executive who launched the Dreamcast for Sega in the US 25 years ago. Moore, who recently avoided a brush with death thanks to his Apple Watch, will talk about today’s lessons from his past, which includes leadership roles at Microsoft Xbox, Electronic Arts and Unity.

And Matthew Bromberg, Unity’s new CEO, will be speaking in a live virtual session at the end of the first day, where we’ll talk about decision-making in the wake of Unity’s Runtime Fee controversy, where the company introduced a new price increase. and then went back.

The launch session will take place on Monday at 1:20pm (registration opens at noon) with Entertainment Software Association CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis and Laura Naviaux Sturr, COO of Amazon Games. They will talk about new growth vectors and the expansion of intellectual property to new generations of audiences.

We’ll have several sessions talking about AI, but our dedicated AI and Gaming panel will focus on the ethical use of AI in game development and user-generated content. It will present 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.

The events of day 2

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

They will talk about inspiring the next generation of gaming leaders and luminaries, and how culture and representation can play a role in attracting and nurturing the next generation of gamers and creators who want to work in the industry.

Johnson-Marletti plans to provide some insight into building a career in gaming and how large companies can foster and retain talent who will become the next generation leaders in the gaming industry. She will also address diversity and inclusion, representation, and how both new workers and gaming companies can prepare the new wave of talent for long-term success.

We’ll kick off the session with leaders from Xsolla, Electronic Arts, and SciPlay talking about best practices for mastering mobile monetization. Then we’ll delve deeper, splitting into three competing stages for discussions on 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 VP of Marketing Bridget Stacy will lead a session on prioritizing inclusion in tough times with inspiring entrepreneurs including Sheloman Byrd, CEO of Open Ocean Games; Jessica Murray, CEO of Wicked Saints Studios; and Jenny Xu, CEO of Talofa Games.

I’m sad I can’t mention everything, but we’ll touch on important topics like alternative open source game engines like Godot, mental health and games where games can be considered medical treatments, millennial gamers and GenZ, pioneering VR concepts with leaders like Kerestell Smith by Gorilla Tag and pet game creator Bernard Yee, the future of game publishing, operating ethically in an ambiguous time, M&A and game finance, reviewing games, game creators and discovery, direct stores to consumers and creating IP transmedia 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 to other Skydance executives about welcoming people to your team. He has a large team creating Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and is a veteran co-creator of the Uncharted series and beyond.

We also have a series of interesting round tables. In one, Shelby Moledina, who created a dark comedy short film about raising money for games when you’re a woman. I highly recommend round tables for those who want a more intimate event experience.

Game Changers session

To conclude the conference, Lightspeed and GamesBeat will announce Game Changers 2025 — an annual list to celebrate and accelerate extraordinary startups in gaming and interactive technology. Moritz Baier-Lentz and I from Lightspeed will kick off 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 strategy officer at Electronic Arts.

We will then reveal the winners in each of the five key categories present live on stage: 3D technology and infrastructure, generative AI, game studios and UGC, interactive media platforms and augmented reality (AR and VR). Last year, Lightspeed displayed the winners’ names on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square.

Our next events

And please remember that we have a new event about gaming and its intersections with Hollywood on December 12th in LA, the same day as The Game Awards. It’s called the GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games. This includes Brian Ward, CEO of Savvy Games Group; game adaptation filmmaker Ari Arad, industry visionary Matthew Ball of Epyllion; Eunice Lee, COO Scopely; Story Kitchen’s Dmitri Johnson and the man who 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 expanded partnership with Xsolla on the GamesBeat Global Tour, where we’re holding dinners in cities around the globe. Last year, we held dinners in Los Angeles, Austin, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Seattle.

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

Finally, remember to step out of the virtual world long enough to see what’s going on in the real world. Don’t forget to vote in this year’s presidential election. You can even do this at the Jam City headquarters in LA, which is a real polling place.

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

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