We’d love to have you attend our GamesBeat Summit 2023 event on May 22-23 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles. It will be accompanied by a third day of virtual content on May 24.

Our theme for the 15th-annual event is The Next Level. Over the years, we built GamesBeat Summit into THE event to meet the gaming thought leaders. Whatever the latest gaming trend is, whether it’s at the core of the industry or on its edge, we expose you to the best thinkers — and let you draw your conclusions about what could disrupt gaming next.

You can register here. Please don’t dally, as our super early bird pricing ends March 7 and our early bird pricing ends April 6. You can use my code for a 25% discount: GBSDEANWEB25.

I take pride in making sure that our content is fresh. Our trends are happening in real time, as The Last of Us show on HBO isn’t even done with its first season, yet we know it has leveled up gaming. I’ve written a half-dozen stories in the last month or so on the combo of generative AI and user-generated content. These trends are making other hot topics seem like old news.

Our commitment to our GamesBeat community is to sort through the hype, follow the money and analyze the business trends. What do I mean by community? Well, last night I introduced a game startup that was seeking funding to 41 game venture capitalists. I do that regularly — for no charge.

Among our latest speakers is Mike Pondsmith, founder of R. Talsorian Games and the creator of Cyberpunk, a visionary science fiction series that became the foundation for Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as well as Cyberpunk 2077.

Mike Pondsmith is CEO of R. Talsorian Games and creator of Cyberpunk.

What’s our theme about? It seems that gaming is always hitting new milestones and new heights, but quite often it feels like we aren’t ambitious enough. We’ll talk about what it means to double-down on gaming and really take it to the next level.

The gaming industry is in a constant state of chaos and disruption, with new technologies, changing consumer behaviors, shifting business models, increasing competition, and social and cultural factors all driving change. To succeed in this turbulent landscape, companies must navigate novel challenges and seize emerging opportunities, finding innovative ways to distinguish themselves in a crowded market. They have to level up.

At GamesBeat Summit 2023, we’ll explore how the gaming industry is moving to a new level where agility and adaptability are crucial for success. Topics covered will include gaming technology and innovation, artificial intelligence, novel business models and monetization strategies, gaming communities and social responsibility, navigating intense competition, and the future of gaming and entertainment.

The summit serves as a thought-leadership platform that convenes leaders from all sectors of the video game industry ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, talent, anchor corporations, support organizations, educational institutions, government, economic development, investment capital, and innovation enablers. I can’t tell you how many great deals have been done over the years at GamesBeat events. But I hope that notion gives you a bit of FOMO if you don’t make it to the event.

I just came back from last week’s Dice Summit, refreshed and inspired. I signed up a number of speakers for our event. It was good to see so many people in person enjoying the perks of in-person events and doing deals. I’m looking forward to being able to celebrate the joys of gaming together under one roof.

Diverse speakers

Some of our speakers for GamesBeat Summit 2023.

Our goal is always to have a diverse set of speakers who can speak on a wide variety of topics with different perspectives.

The speakers include Yat Siu, executive chairman of Animoca Brands; John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity; Maureen Fan, CEO of Baobab; Tommy Palm, CEO of Resolution Games; Kylan Gibbs, CPO of Inworld AI; and Ted Schilowitz, futurist at Paramount and many more.

I’m delighted to report that we have some good sponsorship interest. Our Women in Gaming breakfast will take place on the morning of May 22 and it will feature Visa’s gaming lead Michelle Torrey and GamesBeat writer Rachel Kaser, as well as a couple of unannounced speakers.

And on May 23, we will hold our first-ever Diversity in Gaming breakfast. Meta has stepped forward as the sponsor of that session, which will include Sheloman Byrd, COO of Streamline Studios; Alexander Fernandes, CEO of Streamline Studios; and Robin Gray, co-CeO of Gray Jones Media and founder of the Gayming Awards.

GamesBeat Visionary Awards

Geoff Keighley of The Game Awards talks with Laura Miele of EA at GamesBeat Summit 2021.

Speaking of awards, we will have our sixth annual GamesBeat Visionary Awards. We started this award in 2018 as a way to honor game industry leaders who showed real vision for the future.

Our past winners for this award include Rand Miller, cofounder of Cyan and co-creator of Myst; Ted Price, founder of Insomniac Games; John Smedley, studio head at Amazon Game Studios San Diego; Laura Miele, the top gaming executive at Electronic Arts; and Sarah Bond, vice president for game creator experience and ecosystem at Microsoft.

We also give out the annual Up and Comer Award as part of this program. Our past winners for this award were Eve Crevoshay, executive director of Take This; creator Natasha “ZombaeKills” Zinda; and Dinga Bakaba, studio head and co-director at Arkane Lyon, a Bethesda studio. This award honors someone who is an up-and-comer when it comes to achievements in the game industry. It isn’t based on age or experience in the game industry. Rather, it recognizes that the biggest potential of the honoree lies ahead of them.

Our judges include Christina Heller, CEO of Metastage; Ted Price, Insomniac Games; John Smedley, former studio head at Amazon Games; Ivan Lobo, founder of Gamelab; Tammy McDonald, adviser for Griffin Gaming Partners; Don Daglow, Sr. Director for Strategic Partnerships, The Strong; and Shu Yoshida, Head of PlayStation Indies, Sony Interactive Entertainment. (I am still planning to add more judges, and we are looking for a sponsor for the awards).

John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity Technologies.

We take the responsibility for curating our speakers seriously. The event is our flagship conference of the year and it will focus on the changes happening in the core of the game industry.

We’ll have seers and experts of the industry from the game market-focused Ryan McDermott of Resolute Partners Group, who will help us sort through the economic and market views that are relevant to games in 2023. Omid Rahmat of Jon Peddie Research will talk about the tools of the metaverse. And Richard Hoeg of Hoeg Law will walk us through the laws and regulations affecting gaming. Tom Pigott, CEO of Ludo.ai, will walk us through the implications of generative AI for game development.

I am busy recruiting some of the maestros of the metaverse, gaming, and Hollywood — as the forces that are coming together and elevating gaming culture into the mainstream could be strong enough to lift us out of the current industry funk and lead us to the next generation of games.

We’ll have content, networking, and fun events for folks that span a couple of days in an elegant setting.

Our moderators include some veterans of gaming as well, including Lisa Cosmas Hanson, president of Niko Partners; Michael Metzger, partner at Drake Star Partners; Jon Radoff, CEO of Beamable; David Higley, managing director of Lazard; Rachel Kaser, GamesBeat writer; and Jordan Fragen, GamesBeat writer.

There is still time to help us fill out the agenda with earned and sponsored sessions. We promise to focus on the highest-quality talks from the brightest people in the industry who can show us the way. Hope to see you there.