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

We have many speakers who can deliver high-level insights on the state of the gaming industry, which has seen seemingly contradictory strong financial results, unpredictable gaming success and 32,000 layoffs over the past three years.

Despite the uncertainty in the industry, we have more than 600 people signed up and expect it to be sold out. Among these people are 150 CEOs and other top leaders in the industry. We have 97 speakers, and 65% of them come from different backgrounds. And 41% are women. We have 42 sessions on stage and roundtable discussions.

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 stick together.

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

Our event theme is about getting back to growth, not only with growth in revenue and players, but with growth in jobs for game developers as well. 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 excited to have returning speakers who can bring us another milestone in the game’s progress toward big goals like the metaverse and interoperability. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, returns in a pre-recorded virtual conversation that captures us at our 2021 talk in the midst of the pandemic. We will cover the progress on the path to the open metaverse and the development of Unreal and Fortnite.

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

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

We also have Shawn Layden, former president of Sony Interactive Studios, and Christina Macedo, CEO of Play, talking about how it’s critical to focus on making great games—and what they’re doing to support them with Web3 technology. And while our event is all about technology, their talk is the only one of the sessions that focuses on blockchain, which is very different from what we’ve had in the past.

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 staved off death thanks to his Apple Watch, will talk today about lessons from his past that includes leadership roles at Microsoft Xbox, Electronic Arts and Unity.

And Matthew Bromberg, the new CEO of Unity, will be speaking in a live virtual session at the end 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 it went back.

The kickoff session will take place 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 the growth and 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 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.

Events day 2

Our Women in Gaming breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the second day of the event, and features a fireside chat between GamesBeat writer Rachel Kaser and Dametra Johnson-Marletti Dametra, vice president of digital gaming in Microsoft’s 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 gaming and how culture and representation can play a role in attracting and nurturing the next generation of gamers and creatives who want to work in the industry.

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

We kick off the session with leaders from Xsolla, Electronic Arts and SciPlay talking about best practices for mastering mobile monetization. Then we’ll drill deeper and divide into three simultaneous stages for conversations 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’s 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 Murrey, CEO of Wicked Saints Studios; and Jenny Xu, CEO of Talofa Games.

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

Toward the end, we gather to hear Amy Hennig, Co-President of New Media at Skydance Interactive talk to other Skydance executives about welcoming people to your team. She has a large 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 roundtable discussions. Under one, Shelby Moledina, who has created a dark comedy short film about raising money for games while being a woman. I highly recommend the round tables for those who want a more intimate experience at the event.

Game Changers session

To conclude 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 I 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.

Then we will reveal the winners from 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 names of the winners on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square.

Our next events

And remember, we have a new event coming up on gaming and its intersections with Hollywood, on December 12th 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 filmmaker Ari Arad, industry visionary Matthew Ball of Epyllion; Eunice Lee, COO of Scopely; Dmitri Johnson of Story Kitchen and the man who conspired to bring Sonic the Hedgehog and Lara Croft to film and TV; and Erika Ewing, a cross-media executive at Lionsgate.

And be sure to look out for our expanded partnership with Xsolla on the GamesBeat Global Tour where we’ll be hosting dinners in cities around the world. This past 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 get out of the virtual world long enough to see what is happening in the real world. Remember to vote in this year’s presidential election. You can even do this at Jam City headquarters in LA, which is an actual 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 Gaming, the IGDA Foundation and the Black in Gaming Foundation.