GamesBeat Summit 2022 opening speech: How to make a real golden age of gaming

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GamesBeat Summit 2022 returns with its largest event for leaders in gaming on April 26-28th. Reserve your spot here!

Here’s Dean Takahashi’s opening speech for GamesBeat Summit 2022:

Welcome back to our first in-person day for a GamesBeat Summit conference since the pandemic began. I’m so happy to see those of you who made it here in person, and I’m also glad we have many of you watching online. 

I got so used to giving opening speeches online that I’m rusty at doing it in person. Maybe it will be better if I can give my speeches in the metaverse.

This is our sixth GamesBeat event that has taken place since the pandemic began, and it is our first hybrid event — combining both physical and online gatherings — that I hope is a stepping stone to bringing our community back together.

While we are grateful you are here, please be mindful of staying safe and healthy. My own way of greeting people at the summit is the elbow bump. It’s my way of saying we like you and we don’t want you to catch anything while you’re here as our guests.

I’d like you to look at this one picture. It’s not remarkable, but it is what I would call an example of ground truth. This is the workplace view of Pavel Izotov, a game developer in Cherkasy, Ukraine. Ever since the war started in his country, he has been working on a game called Rebuild Ukraine. And he has had to do it from a bomb shelter, alongside his game tester wife. They live a good distance from the war front, like about the distance from LA to San Luis Obispo. They have gone back to their apartment for showers, but it is not entirely safe from rocket attacks. It struck me that they believe enough in the power of games to do good in the world to work on a game in the middle of a war zone. 

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