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Thank you for supporting GamesBeat during its year of going independent

We have so much to be thankful for this year. In the past few years, when the game industry suffered record layoffs and studio closures, it was very hard to watch so many people in the industry struggle, even as the industry recovered.

For us, the story has been different. After 17 years under VentureBeat, we spun out in late April as an independent company. We were grateful to have a growing business with potential to do more with a sharper focus on games, entertainment and technology.

Gina Joseph, our CEO at GamesBeat, guided us through the complex legal process of spinning out, with the help of strategic adviser Peter Levin and Greg Axelrud and the legal experts at Stubbs Alderton. I thank them for their hard work.

We had some wonderful sponsors for our events this year that enabled us to survive. They include Xsolla, Lightspeed, Scopely, Nvidia, Jam City, AWS, ThinkingData, Void Interactive, Livewire, Loaded, FastSpring, Overwolf, the Entertainment Software Association, Google Cloud, Tencent, Voice Patrol, Modulate, Sawhorse and more. If there’s a wish I have for next year, it is to see more of the core of the game industry on that list.

[img]{LINK REMOVED}https://gamesbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/gina-dean-1024x683.jpg[/img] Dean Takahashi and Gina Joseph of GamesBeat. We also appreciate the hard work of all of those who helped us with our events and including David Glass, Cathy Simpson, Marta Ordeig, Ji Lee, Michelle Torrey, Eric Vaughan, Madison Shelton, Kelsea Watkins, Livia Greenberg, Aron Garst and our journalists Alex Lee, Rachel Kaser and David Jagneaux. I feel like we’re all building something special.

Thanks to the wonderful people in our community who have helped us before and after our spinout. Our GamesBeat advisers did a wonderful job of supporting us and getting speakers for our events. We had great community partners and we have great founding members on GB Max.

We know that we’re still because of all of your help. We know how strong and fragile the community can be. We saw it again as we all mourned the {LINK REMOVED}passing of Vince Zampella, the head of Respawn and Battlefield at EA, in a car crash on Sunday. The outpouring of grief and love for Vince has been overwhelming. I am sad to mourn the passing of a friend who was responsible for providing so much joy in my life through his games. May we all hug the ones we love tighter as we consider the loss of someone so great.

[img]{LINK REMOVED}https://gamesbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/team-1024x683.jpg[/img] Members of GamesBeat’s team at our Hollywood and Games event. Source: Overwolf This year was our most exciting one yet. From going independent to expanding our editorial focus, launching GB MAX, The BIG Show podcast, and new event series — to growing our team and pushing beyond traditional coverage — this year marked a defining new chapter for GamesBeat.

For 2026, we envision that GB will continue to be a safe place for creators and execs in the industry to come together, as we slowly expand our presence in entertainment, media, technology, consumer brands, culture, and beyond. We’re also hoping to become a more global brand. Our goal is simple: to ensure GamesBeat continues to be a critical point of intersection for the industry’s biggest players. We will do it through our community approach, with meaningful conversations with the leaders of the industry, regardless of their roots. Join us on this adventure, as we can only get that far on our own. We know that we’re still here because of all of your help. We’re deeply grateful for the support, trust, and belief you’ve shown us along the way. As Gina says, we’re just getting started.

Here’s the speech I gave at our GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games event. It was about the inspiration I found for games and Hollywood in the K-pop Demon Hunters song, Golden, by Huntrix.

I hope you find your own inspirations during the season of joy and rest. My message on this holiday is the same as what the movie and the song told us. You’re already Golden.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yebNIHKAC4A?feature=oembed Imagine that song from K-pop Demon Hunters. Golden. Who cried when you heard that song?

Come on. Tell me the truth. I know more than 400 million people – most of you people here – watched that movie.

That song is nominated for four Grammys. It’s empowering, like Let It Go from Frozen. It’s interesting for me to see the Asian version of that. Think of K-pop Demon Hunters, that two-hour movie, a 3D animated show. With a 3.5-minute song that made me look at the screen and see those three young women singing. It made me think about my three grown-up daughters, all out of the house now. Empowered to go out into the world and seize their moment. That is emotion. It’s a perfect experience that rises above the kids’ worlds of LEGO or anime and it moves us into a 3D world that adults like me can feel comfortable in. I’m happy to cry when I watch that.

What would K-pop Demon Hunters be if it were a game? It might be a 100-hour experience. For every time I shed a tear, I would have a microtransaction go kaching. And after I killed the Saja Boys and took out about 2.5 thousand demons, I would find the boss demon, which would look a lot scarier than it did in the movie. More like something out of Elden Ring. I would die 100 times and then finally take down the boss. And then I would move on to episode 2. And eventually, I would get through episode 100.

You see where I’m going with this. Sometimes, you have to think about your audience. Know when to stop. Could we respect the time of our players and deliver the same emotional impact as that movie in a two-hour game? Should we milk them for all they’ve got?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lQnhRjhoJx8?feature=oembed We have very different media, between film, music, TV and games. You don’t need to compare yourself to another, nor do you have to take one medium into another. Here’s all you need to think about. And that song is my whole speech. What were you born to be?

Well, after covering the game industry for 30 years, I figured out what I was born to be. With the help of Gina Joseph, we spun out of our parent company and became independent. That was just seven months ago. And now we’re putting on our third major event in that time. We’ve got more people working on our team and event than we’ve had in years. I’m very thankful to have them.

And we’re living a dream that we share with the people we write about every day in the game industry. We’re controlling our own destiny. Were you born to be part of the biggest corporation on Earth, shutting down the competition with your massive marketing budget? Do you have to cross oceans to get your money and arrive in your promised land? Do you need to wait for someone to say yes to you so you can build that game that you always dreamed about doing? You should know inside what the answers to those questions are.

And if there’s an inspirational message I have for you, it is that you are already Golden. You’re on top. You should control your own destiny. And as for Hollywood and games and the marriage of the arts, this is your moment. It’s time for you to shine. And we plan to always be here, cheering you on from the sidelines, because we have the same goals, ambitions, dreams and aspirations. In fact, GamesBeat would like to be part of your mission, helping you on that journey toward controlling your own destiny. I want to see all of you get your shot and take your shot. Hit your mark. Find your Golden trio.

Just remember that we have seen a lot of movies before. And the movies don’t always end the way we expect them to. Right now, in Netflix’s analyst call about its big acquisition, the subject of games never came up once as the execs explained why they were buying Warner Bros. The narrative is that games are a niche.

And in Warner Bros.’s case, they have $1.5 billion in games revenue and $38 billion in other entertainment revenue. But games represent competition for the time of consumers. Their competition is for players’ time, as Netflix founder Reed Hastings always said. That means they are an existential threat to companies like Warner or Netflix, said Michael Pachter.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mhka_tYWltk?feature=oembed With game platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, young people are concentrating there. And they don’t know brands that advertise on TV. That means that if you are not on those platforms now, in a generation, your famous brand may be gone. What we’re here to talk about is not how Hollywood and games will try to annihilate each other. It’s about how they will work together. Thank you all for coming here, and enjoy the show.

Happy holidays.

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