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Angelo is an in-house attorney at Microsoft, but unlike the very exciting areas of work within the company like Microsoft Office, Windows, and Azure, Angelo toils daily in the Xbox mines, supporting their first-party game development studios. He currently provides legal support for 343 Industries (Halo), The Coalition (Gears of War), and Ninja Theory (Hellblade). With an engineering background and some experience as a software developer, he understands the technical aspects of game development (while also having enough self-knowledge to acknowledge that he no longer has the coding chops to do it himself), and spends what free time he has left after raising his two young children playing whatever games he can get his hands on (while justifying it to himself as market research). Prior to his role at Microsoft, Angelo has spent time in the legal departments of Google, Yahoo!, and Bandai Namco Entertainment America. Angelo frequently speaks about legal issues affecting the video game industry at legal conferences as well as game industry events such as GDC, PAX, TwitchCon, and SXSW.

Nick Ballou is a research psychologist at the University of Oxford and one of the world's leading young experts in how media usage affects mental health—for example, effects like stress relief, displacement, and nostalgia. He develops creative methods to collect detailed behavioral data from platforms (e.g., Xbox, TikTok), and use this data to understand the key ingredients in a healthy digital diet with a focus on causality, not correlations. A broader goal of Nick's work is to make psychological research more rigorous, trustworthy, and actionable as part of the science reform movement. He is a postdoc at the Oxford Internet Institute, having recently finished his PhD at Queen Mary University of London.

Troy Batterberry is the founder and CEO of EchoMark, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company pioneering a new standard in information protection. The company was founded on that trust is central to empowering everyone to do their best work. Troy brings years of product and technology experience, including 25 years at Microsoft, where he most recently served as a Corporate Vice President as the product leader of Microsoft Teams Meetings, Calling, and Events. During his tenure, Troy also played an integral role in the growth and success of marquee Microsoft products, such as Windows, Explorer/Edge, Bing, Xbox, and MSN. Before joining Microsoft, Troy held engineering positions at Sony and within the U.S. Department of Defense. Troy is driven by a long-standing passion for creating new experiences and products. In addition to his professional pursuits, Troy is a parent volunteer at his kids' schools, spends time volunteering for Boy Scouts, and also enjoys time outdoors boating, hiking, and running. He holds an M.S. in Information Systems from the University of Southern California and a B.S. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from North Dakota State University.

Ander Bergstrom brings comprehensive understanding of the motion capture ecosystem from his experience as studio owner, producer, and technology vendor. As founder of Mocap Now, he built relationships with top-tier game studios before the company was acquired by StretchSense in 2020. His career includes roles as Senior Producer on Xbox's Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft and as animation producer on AAA titles including the UFC franchise at THQ. This diverse background gives him unique perspective on motion capture from multiple angles: creative demands, technical requirements, business considerations, and technology capabilities. Now serving as Market Director and Entertainment Sales Manager at Qualisys, he helps game developers, film studios, and educational institutions find motion capture solutions that fit their creative vision and production realities.

Travis Bradshaw is a Principal Product Manager at Xbox, leading the product team for creator onboarding and publishing pipelines for developers. His team builds the products that help developers get started, publish their games, and succeed on the platform. Previously, Travis was the product lead for PlayFab. Before Microsoft, he spent over a decade at id Software, where he led build and release infrastructure for the id Tech engine and live services for the DOOM and QUAKE franchises. He's passionate about making the leap from PC to Xbox as seamless as possible—ideally before the end of your workday.

Sam Carlisle is an External Development veteran and XDS Advisory Committee member who started in the games industry as an artist. Began working with external teams at Sumo Digital in 2007, before becoming Outsource Manager; successfully guiding Sumo's fledgling India studio into a fully integrated partner, while overseeing their rapidly expanding external development program. Took a central position at Xbox Games Studios in 2014 to support and guide their Global Studios with External Development Partnerships. In 2024, after 10 years at Xbox he left to co-found XDS Spark with Chris Wren. A platform designed to bring service providers and buyers together while advancing and advocating for external developments exciting future.

Creative Director of Marvel Rivals, Marvel Rivals smashed industry records with an amazing 10 million rivals assembling within the first 72 hours of its December 2024 launch. The momentum didn't stop there! In just three months, the game soared past 40 million users. Since its release, Marvel Rivals has consistently ranked among the top games on Steam's Most Played and Top Selling charts, achieving similar success on PlayStation and Xbox.

Danny Chen is a Principal Software Engineer on the Xbox Performance Team at Microsoft. He works closely with game studios, hardware teams, and Core Windows OS and graphics teams to solve complex performance challenges spanning CPU, I/O, memory management, and platform‑level optimization. Danny has been a key driver of initiatives such as resource determinism, DirectStorage, HW accelerated decompression, and low latency asset‑streaming pipelines. His work empowers developers to build richer, faster, and more responsive game experiences.

Simon Cooke is a member of the Android Games DevRel team, where he strives to improve Android for game developers, and to make games run better on Android devices. Before Google, Simon spent a decade in the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, and previously was at Surreal Software (and Midway) working on a variety of games. You've probably played a game he's worked on.

Graeme is a 40+ years industry veteran who has worked on everything from TRS-80 to Xbox 360. In the early nineties he pioneered CD-ROM gaming with the breakthrough title 'The 7th Guest'. He later went on to become the lead designer on 'Quake III Arena' and 'Halo Wars'. Graeme started GRL Games in December 2010 to focus on bringing entertaining titles to the iPhone, iPad and Mac Desktop. Recently he was working as the Chief Game Wizard of Magic Leap but can now be found at his new company QXR Studios working on new narrative worlds.

Blair Durkee is the Associate Director of Gaming at GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization. She has a M.S. in Computer Science from Clemson University, where she also began her career in advocacy. Since joining GLAAD in 2018, she has led the expansion of GLAAD's programmatic work in the video game industry and has consulted on a wide range of LGBTQ-inclusive titles like Tell Me Why from Xbox Game Studios and Apex Legends from Electronic Arts. Blair is based in South Carolina, as a lifelong tech-enthusiast and gamer, she is passionate about harnessing the power of video games to create a better world for LGBTQ people.

Andreea Enache is the Chief Revenue Officer at Amber Studio and a veteran Gaming and Digital Media Executive with extensive experience in driving strategic growth for some of the industry's most recognized brands, including Marvel, Sony Pictures Digital, Sony Online Entertainment, Namco, and Konami. As the former Senior Vice President of Marvel Entertainment's gaming and digital distribution business, she played a key role in launching major titles such as Avengers Alliance, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, and War of Heroes. She has also held leadership roles as Chief Business Officer at Secret Dimension and Head of Global Business Development & Strategy at Blind Squirrel Games, where she was instrumental in the studio's rapid expansion. A respected thought leader, Andreea has extensive expertise in licensing, business development, production, marketing, and digital distribution and has led high-profile negotiations with partners such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, iTunes, PlayStation, Xbox, and Hulu. In addition to her work at Amber, she is the founder of Digital Monk, LLC. and serves on various industry advisory boards. Before transitioning into gaming, Andreea spent over a decade in print, radio, and TV journalism in Bucharest, Romania. She holds a Financial Management certification from Cornell University, a Diploma of Excellence from the Romanian Academy of Radio & TV, and degrees in Linguistics & Foreign Languages from the University of Bucharest and Communication Studies from California State University, Northridge (Magna Cum Laude).

Ed Fries created his first video games for the Atari 800 in the early 1980s. He joined Microsoft in 1986 and spent the next ten years as one of the developers of Excel and Word. In 1996 he left the Office team to pursue his passion for interactive entertainment and created Microsoft Game Studios. Over the next eight years he grew the team from 50 people to over 1200, published more than 100 games including more than a dozen million+ sellers, co-founded the Xbox project, and made Microsoft one of the leaders in the video game business. In 2004, Ed retired as a Microsoft Vice President and began working as a board member and advisor with entrepreneurs in the video game business as well as serving on the board of several non-profit organizations including the International Game Developers Association Foundation and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2019 Ed and Kelly Wallick launched 1Up Ventures, a venture fund to support independent game developers. Since then, 1Up Ventures has made more than 80 investments in game development companies around the world.

Sam has spent his career leading teams and companies across the video game industry. He has successfully built and sold three game studios, including two in the medical games space. Before his foray into games for doctors, Sam was CEO of Funtactix, the studio behind mobile and social F2P titles for top-tier Hollywood franchises such as The Hunger Games, Mission: Impossible, and Narcos. He previously led the DirectX graphics team at Microsoft, where he drove the development and standardization of GPU capabilities across Xbox and the global hardware ecosystem. Sam began his career as an animator at LucasArts and has served on graphics and gaming advisory boards for Intel, AMD, Microsoft, Khronos, and others.

Frank is the Associate Realization Director at Compulsion Games (XBox Studios). Over the years he's worked in QA, Cinematics, Tech & Design - ultimately pursuing a passion for narrative presentation in all its forms.

Principal Engineer with 27 years of experience specialising in 3D graphics, GPU programming, and high-performance engine architecture across multiple console generations. Tom has led technical development on platforms ranging from Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 to legacy systems like PS2 and Dreamcast. His work spans real-time ray tracing and image upscaling technologies such as DLSS, with a growing interest in graphics-focused machine learning.

Ivor Novello award-winning duo Joe Henson and Alexis Smith began collaborating in 2005. After realizing they had a similar approach to life and wildly divergent musical tastes, they formed a creative partnership that quickly encompassed songwriting, production, and composition. The duo have worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry as well as being renowned composers for triple A video game titles. In 2014, they saw the release of hit survival horror title Alien: Isolation, and they followed this up with Horizon: Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Horizon Forbidden West, and WB Games Montréal's Gotham Knights. The Flight's television projects include the NETFLIX Series Lockwood & Co; BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary series, Drugsland; and Kids on the Edge, produced for Channel 4 by Century Films. Their most recent project is the duo returning to the popular Assassin's Creed franchise with Assassin's Creed Shadows. The game takes place in 16th century Japan and follows two new characters in the creed's fight against the Templar order. Assassin's Creed Shadows is out now on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Adam has worked in the gaming space for over 10 years, always as a leader with a strong passion for mentorship or as he likes to call it, "helping people to be the best versions of themselves at work." After experiencing two layoffs, he decided to take control of his own career, combining his passion for mentorship and years of leadership experience to become one of the only career and executive coaches dedicated to the games industry. Since then, Adam has had the privilege of working with hundreds of game devs, including executives, entrepreneurs, and job seekers from companies like Xbox, Sony, Riot Games, and Nintendo.

Zach Hooper is a Principal Product Manager in Xbox's Platform Developer organization, where he builds products that help simplify bringing your game to Xbox with a specific focus on how Xbox functionality works great within game engines. Zach has shipped 12+ games as a game developer at studios like Surreal Software, Monolith Productions, Turn 10 Studios, and Battle Barge.

John Hopson has worked in games analytics for over twenty years, most notably at Xbox, Bungie, Blizzard, and Epic, contributing to landmark games including Halo, Destiny, World of Warcraft, and Fortnite. He has a PhD in psychology from Duke University and is the author of the best-selling book The Secret Science of Games and a longtime advocate for data-informed design. His work bridges neuroscience and creative practice to help developers make better decisions through meaningful data.

Jeff spent the first part of his career in the world of feature film and animation, being part of such franchises as Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, The Matrix, Shrek, and Planet of the Apes, where he served in senior and supervisor positions in compositing, lighting, crowd simulation, and FX animation. He made the move to game development a decade ago, with game credits that include Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Gears Tactics, Return to Moria, and Marvel's Spider Man 2. He is currently VFX Lead at inXile Entertainment, part of Xbox Studios.

Karla Larriva is a Principal Product Manager in Xbox's Platform Developer organization, where she drives strategy and execution across developer‑focused workflows, tools, and multi‑device experiences. She brings deep experience across Xbox Cloud Gaming, Windows, and Store systems, consistently improving developer productivity and customer experience. Her work centers on reducing friction for studios, accelerating adoption of new platform capabilities, strengthening studio engagement, and shaping the future of next‑generation developer workflows, and cross‑device play.

Paul is an award-winning executive and creative leader whose career spans the globe, establishing him as a leading figure in innovation and advocacy within the games and interactive entertainment industry. As the President of Arrival, Paul is the driving force behind the company’s global operations, fueling strategy, content development, and creative pipelines across teams in Los Angeles, Seattle, and the UK.   Prior to leading Arrival, Paul served as SVP Interactive Worldwide at Formosa Group and was Senior Audio Director at Xbox Game Studios. He has managed extensive AAA teams and pipelines for industry giants including Activision, EA, SEGA, Ubisoft, PlayStation Studios, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, 2K Games, Nintendo of America, Harmonix, and many more.     His portfolio includes credits on some of the industry’s most successful properties, including the God of War franchise, The Last of Us franchise, Halo, Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, Resident Evil, Fortnite, Borderlands 3, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Motorsport 5, Iron Man 2, and BioShock 2. Paul and his teams have achieved global recognition, winning multiple MPSE Golden Reel Awards, DICE Awards, G.A.N.G. Awards, SXSW Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Joystick Awards. In 2023, Paul was honored with the prestigious Game Audio Network Guild Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Conference.   A passionate advocate for the industry, Paul served a six-year term as President of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.)—the world’s largest organization of game audio professionals. As an active member of the Board of Directors, he helped originate the industry-first Program Partnership Initiative, the Guild Scholarship Award, and the worldwide advisor network. He was also a founding member of G.A.N.G. 's Pro Branches, including the Interactive Entertainment Sound Developers (IESD) and the Voice Actor Coalition (GVAC).   Paul is also a patent holder, having co-invented a first-of-its-kind Pre-Cognitive Interactive Music System with Microsoft colleague Robert Ridihalgh. An active speaker, he has conducted master classes and panels at MIT, Yale University, Berklee College of Music, Georgia Tech, SIGGRAPH, GDC, and the GRAMMY Soundtables.   Paul holds a BM and MM with summa/highest distinction from the world-renowned New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. A jazz and classical musician of twenty-five years, he has performed and recorded with legends such as Mick Goodrick, John Abercrombie, Clark Terry, George Russell, Cecil McBee, and Bob Moses.

Sebastian Long is MD of Player Research (a Keywords Studio), the leading agency for insight into players and play. As a gameplay researcher Seb has led design-improving playtest studies for hundreds of games, spanning all genres, audiences and platforms - including for beloved IPs Sniper Elite, FIFA, World of Tanks, LittleBigPlanet, Talking Tom, Hungry Shark, LEGO, and games including Control and Elden Ring - and influencing the development direction of international projects for businesses including EA, Sony, Xbox, Tencent Games, and hundreds more. As Managing Director Seb leads a 20-person consultancy based in the UK and Canada, providing research that drives game development decision-making, as both a consultant research strategist and the company Director. Seb is a member of BAFTA, community leader within the IGDA Games User Research & UX SIG, prolific speaker and educator, and is based in Brighton on the UK south coast.

Jen MacLean is the CEO and Co-Founder of Dragon Snacks Games. She got her start in the games industry as a playtester at legendary game studio MicroProse, and from there she built her lifelong love of video games into a successful career managing development of award-winning games, leading partnerships worth billions of dollars, and creating ground-breaking entertainment strategies. Most recently, Jen was the General Manager of Creator Partnerships for Xbox, where her team managed Xbox's largest partner relationships and Jen co-led content strategy for new initiatives.

Jon Martin is a Software Engineer in Xbox's Advanced Technology Group, where he builds solutions that support titles across the Xbox ecosystem. His work spans Unity‑based workflows and core platform support, with a focus on services integration and input systems designed to support diverse devices and control schemes. Jon creates samples and developer workflows that minimize platform friction, enabling teams to release their titles efficiently without compromising player experience.

Ryan McCaffrey has worked in video game enthusiast media since 2002 when he started his career at Official Xbox Magazine, and at IGN since 2012. He created IGN First, an online version of a classic video game magazine’s monthly cover story, in 2014; and IGN Unfiltered, a long-form interview show featuring prominent video game developers, in 2015. He’s hosted IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, since 2012, and been a regular on IGN’s Next-Gen Console Watch show since its inception in 2020. He’s an amateur pizzamaker and a friend to dogs everywhere.  

Andy McCalib is a Principal Architect at Microsoft focused on developer tooling, cross-platform SDKs (including PlayFab), and Xbox game development. Over ~15 years in the game industry, he has helped teams ship Xbox Game Studios titles, and previously led developer support for PlayFab, helping creators integrate services and iterate quickly. More recently, Andy shipped the PlayFab Game Saves feature to enable cross-progression, and at GDC he'll share practical, first-step guidance on getting a PC game running on Xbox in as little as a day using the latest Partner Center and GDK onboarding improvements.

Patrick Mendenall is a lifelong gamer and 20-year gaming industry veteran, with leadership experience spanning Xbox and Azure before joining Arm. At Arm, he focuses on advancing adoption of Arm technologies with strategic gaming partners across mobile, PC, and cloud platforms. Patrick works closely with studios and engine developers to unlock performance, efficiency, and next-generation capabilities that power exceptional gaming experiences worldwide.

Marcus Montgomery is an accomplished video game designer, with over 20 years of contributions across console, mobile, VR, and PC.  Marcus has held pivotal leadership roles at Backbone Entertainment, Oculus/Meta, Xbox Game Studios Publishing, and is currently the Creative Director of the studio he founded, Cornerstone Interactive Studios. In 2014, Marcus joined Gameheads—an Oakland-based nonprofit that uses video game design, development, and DevOps training to prepare low-income youth and youth of color for careers in tech and the games industry—as both an instructor and advisory committee member. 

Marcus Morgan is the VP of Operations at Obsidian Entertainment, which mostly means he's the person people go to when they're not sure who to go to. His past lives include roles across the industry including EA, Activision Blizzard, and Xbox. In his current role at Obsidian, he's helped guide the studio's shift to a first-party studio, worked to bring Obsidian's games to more platforms so more players can enjoy them, and dabbled in the world of streaming television with The Outer Worlds 2 episode in Prime Video's "Secret Level" series. He's contributed to the success of games like The Outer Worlds, Pentiment, and Grounded, the latter of which grew into a 25-million-player surprise hit—and now also serves as Executive Producer for its sequel Grounded 2.

Anthony Nguyen is a Technical Program Manager II at Xbox, where he leads cross‑platform initiatives that empower developers to build seamless, player‑first gaming experiences. In his role, Anthony drives the delivery of core platform services, partnering closely with engineering, design, and product teams to ship high‑impact features that expand player access, strengthen identity and progression systems, and streamline developer workflows. 

Leo Olebe is a global games executive whose 20+ year career spans leadership roles at Xbox, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook/Meta. As VP of Global Partnerships at Xbox, he drove initiatives that strengthen and expand the Xbox ecosystem worldwide. He previously led YouTube's gaming business, supported creators and communities at massive scale, and held earlier posts at Zynga, BioWare, and Warner Bros. Games. Today, Leo also serves as Chair of Games for Change, championing games as a force for positive impact. A lifelong believer in representation, access, and community, he brings a multicultural perspective and a passion for helping creators thrive in every corner of the industry.

Andrea Rene is an on-camera host, producer, and veteran moderator with nearly two decades of experience across games media and live industry events. She is the co-founder of What's Good Games and has moderated panels, live shows, and executive-level conversations for major brands and platforms including Xbox, EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and Epic Games. Known for her thoughtful facilitation and deep industry knowledge, Rene brings historical perspective and a community-first lens to conversations that connect game developers, players, and the communities that shape the industry.

Jason Ronald is a Vice President at Xbox, where he leads the teams responsible for guiding Xbox from one generation to the next. Bridging the developer platform and player experiences, Jason helps shape how Xbox evolves to meet players and creators wherever they are. With more than 20 years in the game and software industry, Jason brings deep experience across engineering, program management, and people leadership. He has a proven track record of shipping large-scale, complex projects that span hardware, software, and global online services—always with an emphasis on quality, reliability, and player impact. Jason is known for uniting diverse teams around a shared vision, driving technical excellence across game development, services, and platform security. A passionate people leader, he focuses on building high-performing teams through thoughtful hiring, mentorship, and individualized growth. At GDC, Jason brings a forward-looking perspective on the future of Xbox and the opportunities ahead for game creators.

Steve Saylor is a blind accessibility consultant and advocate known for his work as the "Blind Gamer" on YouTube where he reviews video games from a visually impaired perspective. With over a decade of experience in the gaming industry, Steve has collaborated with major studios including Ubisoft, PlayStation, and Xbox to improve gaming accessibility in games such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla, The Last Of Us Part 1 and 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. He is a frequent speaker at industry events for his accessibility expertise. He continues to help studios implement accessible features through consulting and is passionate about ensuring games can be enjoyed by players of all abilities.

Brian Schmidt is one of the early pioneers of the game audio industry. The 2008 recipient of the Game Audio Network Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, and 2017 inductee into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame, Brian has been creating game music, sounds and cutting-edge technology for more than 35 years. With a credit list of over 140 games and a client list including Electronic Arts, Zynga, Microsoft, Sony, Capcom, Sega, Data East, Namco and many others. Brian has used his combined expertise and experience in music composition, sound design and his deep technical knowledge to further the state of the art in game audio and his music has been featured in TV, Film and in the CD-set, Legends of Game Music. Brian began his career in game audio in 1987 as a composer, sound effects designer and music programmer for Williams Electronic Games in Chicago - writing music and creating sound effects for pinball machines and coin-operated video games. While there, he was the primary composer of the iconic video game NARC and lead composer and audio lead for Black Knight 2000. His main theme from NARC was later recorded and released by The Pixies. In 1989, Brian left Williams and became one of the industry's first independent game composers, where he worked on such games as John Madden Football, the Desert Strike Series, Mutant League Football and the award-winning Crueball. Other credits include Guns and Roses Pinball, where he worked closely with Slash to create a truly interactive Rock and Roll game experience. In 1998, Brian was recruited by Microsoft to lead the direction of game audio technologies. While there, he joined the then-fledgling Xbox organization as the primary architect for its audio and music system. Brian has been credited with bringing Dolby Digital Surround Sound to interactive gaming through his efforts at Xbox (where he also created the original Xbox startup sound).Through his ten-year tenure at Microsoft, Brian continued to drive and advance game audio technologies through tools such the award-winning XACT (Xbox Audio Creation Tool); the first-of-its kind tool to provide interactive mixing for video games. Brian was also responsible for the overall audio system of the Xbox 360 game system, including the XMA audio compression format, winner of the G.A.N.G Best New Technology award and finalist in IGDA's Best new technology category. Brian currently works as a consultant to the video game industry working with companies large and small. Brian is the creator of GameSoundCon, the industry's largest conference dedicated to composing video game music and video game sound design. Brian is a frequent and in-demand speaker on game audio and game audio technologies, having given literally hundreds of educational and inspirational talks at events all over the world. Events such as the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft's Gamefest, Sega Devcon, and the Audio Engineering Society Conference, SiGraph and esteemed institutions such as Yale University, Northwestern University and Digipen have invited Brian to share his knowledge and insight into the industry. Brian received undergraduate degrees in music and computer science from Northwestern University in1985, where he created the first dual degree program between the School of Music and the Technological Institute. He went on to complete his Masters in Computer Applications in Music in 1987, where portions of his thesis work was published in the prestigious Computer Music Journal and presented by invitation to the AES special conference on Audio Technology. Brian currently serves as President of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), a position he was elected to in 2012; sits on the advisory board of the Game Developer Conference; is a former steering committee member of the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (ia-sig) of the MMA; and has been a featured keynote speaker at GDC, Project BBQ and the Montreal Interactive Games Summit (MIGS).

Mason Sciotti, a nine-year veteran and Group Product Manager for Developers at Discord, has been key in evolving Discord into a comprehensive gaming platform. His deep expertise spans Discord's history of developer products, including SDKs and pioneering console integrations with Xbox and PlayStation. Currently leading the Social SDK, Mason focuses on helping game developers use Discord's social graph to boost player engagement and retention. His approach combines technical product understanding with practical, measurable implementation guidance, shaped by working with studios of all sizes. At GDC, Mason shares proven strategies to make Discord integration a driver of sustained player engagement.

Mark Slutsky is Narrative Director at Compulsion Games (Xbox Game Studios). In 2021, he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Video Game Narrative for his work on their title We Happy Few. In addition, he is an award-winning writer and director for film. His first feature, You Can Live Forever, co-directed with Sarah Watts, premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, and his shorts have played at festivals like TIFF and Tribeca and been featured multiple times as Vimeo Staff Picks.

Ivor Novello award-winning duo Joe Henson and Alexis Smith began collaborating in 2005. After realizing they had a similar approach to life and wildly divergent musical tastes, they formed a creative partnership that quickly encompassed songwriting, production, and composition. The duo have worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry as well as being renowned composers for triple A video game titles. In 2014, they saw the release of hit survival horror title Alien: Isolation, and they followed this up with Horizon: Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Horizon Forbidden West, and WB Games Montréal's Gotham Knights. The Flight's television projects include the NETFLIX Series Lockwood & Co; BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary series, Drugsland; and Kids on the Edge, produced for Channel 4 by Century Films. Their most recent project is the duo returning to the popular Assassin's Creed franchise with Assassin's Creed Shadows. The game takes place in 16th century Japan and follows two new characters in the creed's fight against the Templar order. Assassin's Creed Shadows is out now on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Mithuna Srinivasan, Engineering Lead, Valorem Reply Mithuna is an Engineering Manager at Valorem Reply, where she leads the company's engineering practice and guides technical teams in building large‑scale cloud and AI solutions for enterprise clients. With deep experience in system design, Azure architecture, and applied GenAI, she focuses on helping organizations adopt new technologies in ways that strengthen performance and unlock new capabilities. She brings more than 15 years of hands-on engineering and technical leadership experience across cloud platforms and modern application development. Her background includes leading development for Xbox and Windows experiences, architecting high‑availability cloud solutions, and mentoring engineering teams through complex delivery cycles. At Valorem Reply, she recently leads rollout and optimization of AI tooling and practices, enabling teams to integrate Azure OpenAI, LLM-driven automation, and secure AI workflows into daily development. Her work centers on building practical, scalable AI systems that teams can trust in production. At this year's conference, she will demo Valorem Reply's agentic gaming solution built on Azure Foundry and share how AI‑powered agents can help studios accelerate development, experiment faster, and bring new player experiences to life.

Dean Takahashi is Editorial Director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and The Xbox 360 Uncloaked. He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Antonio Figueiredo is an Advanced Environment Artist at MachineGames, who has been working in the games industry since 2015. With a background in architecture/archviz, Antonio is an avid gamer, notably spending many hours in The Witcher 3, Elden Ring, and Halo 2 (on the original Xbox).

Anna Waismeyer is a Senior Product Manager on the Gaming for Everyone team at Xbox. She is responsible for co-creating and managing the Inclusive Design Workshops and Accessibility Research programs. Anna has a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied cognitive and comparative psychology. Driven by her passion and advocacy for players with disabilities, in 2024 Anna led the launch of the Game Accessibility Workshop Toolkit, a pioneering resource that provides game developers throughout the industry with tools to help them bring accessibility and inclusive design practices to their studios. Over the 5 years that Anna has been at Xbox, she has supported the release of accessibility features across Xbox Game Studios including award-winning features such as Forza Motorsport's blind driving and steering assists, as well as Sea of Thieves' audio aim assist.

"Brady Woods is a product leader at Xbox with over 15 years of experience across gaming, media, and technology. As a leader in the Gaming Commerce Platform & Experiences organization at Microsoft, she guides a global team of product managers responsible for the commerce foundations that power Xbox transactions, multidevice purchase flows, data infrastructure, and creator‑facing marketplace capabilities. Her work focuses on empowering game creators to reach players everywhere, innovate on business models, and drive sustained commercial success across the Xbox ecosystem. Before joining Microsoft, Brady held pivotal product and business leadership roles in entertainment and production, partnering with studios like Marvel and Netflix to advance modern content creation workflows. Across her career, she has championed the intersection of technology, consumer behavior, and creator enablement—shaping platforms that help creators engage audiences and build thriving, scalable businesses.

Sonali Yadav is a Partner Group Product Manager for Gaming AI at Xbox, leading product and strategy at the intersection of AI, games, and player delight. She shapes how AI meaningfully improves and enhances the experiences of players and creators. Previously, Sonali was a founding leader of Microsoft’s small language model efforts, including the Phi family, helping enable a new class of efficient, powerful AI. Earlier, in the Office of the CTO, she drove cross‑company initiatives across AI and consumer products and helped scale Microsoft’s product‑led growth practice. Sonali is passionate about building great products that empower gamers and developers.

Haiyan Zhang is General Manager of AI Innovation and Science at Xbox. She was formerly Chief of Staff to the CEO of Microsoft Gaming and was Senior Director of Innovation at Microsoft Research Cambridge. An innovation and technology leader, Haiyan has spent the past 20 years working hands-on in software engineering, AI, user experience, hardware R&D, cloud platforms, design thinking and blue-sky envisioning. She continues to push the boundaries of where technology can transform people's lives for the better.