GamesBeat Summit 2025 Speakers to Guide Industry Back to Growth: The DeanBeat

It's about time I shared the exciting lineup of speakers we've got planned for the GamesBeat Summit 2025, set to take place from May 19 to May 20 at the Marriott Marina del Rey in Los Angeles. And guess what? We're rolling out a limited-time offer: buy one, get one free (BOGO) tickets for the event!

We're heading back to Los Angeles, the top city worldwide for game jobs, at a pivotal moment for the industry. As noted by industry observers like Matthew Ball, the past 30 months have been tough, marked by layoffs and studio closures. But there's a glimmer of hope—hiring started to rebound in January, according to data from Amir Satvat. Just as we were seeing some light, though, a self-imposed tariff war and stock market crash have thrown a wrench in the works, casting doubt on Nintendo’s Switch 2 launch.

Our goal is to help the game industry navigate its way back to growth. We've gathered some brilliant minds to discuss the pressing issues facing our sector. How can we achieve balanced growth with better revenues, more jobs, and continuous innovation?

Our sessions will cover a wide range of topics, from monetizing retention and AI tools to the evolution of live services, mental health in gaming, motion gaming developments, player feedback, ad-supported cloud gaming, ageism in the industry, maintaining vibrant game communities, fundraising, investment in games, mobile gaming strategies, political and issue-based games, and much more.

We'll also host our latest Women in Gaming Breakfast, moderated by Rachel Kaser of GamesBeat, and our first-ever Accessibility in Gaming lunch.

Here's a sneak peek at some of our stellar speakers for our 2025 flagship event, with more to come:

GamesBeat Summit 2025 Speakers

Our lineup includes Mitch Lasky, a partner at Benchmark Capital and co-host of the GameCraft podcast; Amir Satvat, a champion for game jobs and director of business development at Tencent; Tian Xiao, head of North America partnerships at Tencent; Matthew Bromberg, the new CEO of Unity; Jen MacLean, CEO of Dragon Snacks Games; Adam Boyes, CEO of Vivrato; Susanna Pollack, president of Games for Change; Andre Swanston, CEO of Phynd; Tom Kang, president of Nex Playground; Jesse Meschuk of Savvy Games Group; Richard Browne of Blue Moon Production Company; Dino Patti, CEO of Coherence and founder of Jumpship; Ben Kvalo, CEO of Midwest Games; Louis Gresham, CEO of Hydratac; Dan Bunting, investor at 1AM Gaming; Craig Abrahams, president and CFO of Playtika; Zachary Rozga of Thece; Matei Trebien of Voice Patrol; Ryan Jacobson, general manager of Marvel Strike Force at Scopely; Glenn Ginsburg, president of QYOU Media; Anna Ivanko, senior media manager of global marketing at Ubisoft; Adam Waheed; Garrett Young, CEO of Empty Vessel; Jennifer Jo Day of Blair Durkee, associate director of gaming at GLAAD; Catalin Alexandru, game economist and author of the Intrinsic Economies newsletter; Jennifer Jo of Open Ocean Games; Justin Woodward, cofounder of the Media Indie Exchange (MIX); Aaron Farr, CEO of Jam & Tea Studios; Tsahi Liberman, chief business officer at C1 Innovations; Ashwin Raghuraman at AWS; Sarah Elmaleh, Zeke Alton, and Andi Norris of the Screen Actors Guild; and of course, myself and GamesBeat’s own Rachel Kaser.

We're also excited to welcome back some of the stalwart supporters of the GamesBeat community in various speaking roles. These include Eric Goldberg of Playable Worlds, Sarah Parvini of the Associated Press, Michael Metzger of Drake Star Partners; Sheloman Byrd, CEO of Open Ocean Games; Stephen Machuga, founder of Stack Up; Rich Vogel, CEO of T-Minus Zero Entertainment; Jeonghee JJ Jin, CEO of NC America; Karla Reyes, CEO of Anima Interactive; Susanna Pollack, president of Games for Change, and many more.

GamesBeat 2025 Emcees

Our fantastic team of emcees includes Susanna Pollack of Games for Change, Garrett Young of Empty Vessel, Albert Lai of Parallelz, Chris Melissinos of AWS, Tadhg Kelly of Whenere, Shirley Lin of Blueberry AI, Ashley Trick of Kismet Capital, Desirée Rincón of Digital Fortress, and Leah Hardy of Byowave.

GamesBeat 2025 Advisers

A big thank you to our advisers for the event, who include Adam Boyes of Vivrato; Jace Hall of Twin Galaxies; Jeff Karp; Ed Lu of Fandom; Mike Romo of DDM; Charmaine Duff of Women Led Games; Don Daglow of the Strong Museum of Play; Tammy McDonald; Eric Goldberg of Playable Worlds; Noah Falstein of the Inspiracy; Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners; Perrin Kaplan of Zebra Partners; Michael Metzger of Drake Star Partners; Elizabeth Olson; David B. Hoppe of Gamma Law; Mike Vorhaus of Vorhaus Advisers; Zsuzsa James; Kat Jones of Motiv PR; Wanda Meloni; Lisa Cosmas Hanson of Niko Partners; Sibel Sunar of Fortyseven PR; Michael Chang of Mavent Partners; and Tara Bruno of Tara Bruno PR.

GamesBeat Summit 2025 Sponsors

And let's not forget our generous sponsors, who include Xsolla, Scopely, Tencent, Entertainment Software Association, Modulate, AWS for Games, Google Cloud, Lightspeed, and VoicePatrol. If you're interested in sponsoring, don't hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

Lastly, a huge thanks to our dedicated staff, including Gina Joseph, David Glass, Cathy Simpson, Mike Minotti, Rachel Kaser, Nicole Patricio, Marta Ordeig, Karen Horn, Matt Marshall, Mike Rosinski, Todd Bokin, Deb Sharp, Marc Gartenberg, Gloria Lukos, Alyssa Hill, Brian Thurman, and many others. Their hard work makes all of this possible.