Endings and beginnings: Welcome speech at the 1st independent GamesBeat Summit 2025
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Summary
In his opening remarks at the GamesBeat Summit in Berkeley, California, Dean Takahashi quoted from F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the gaming lyric from Super Metroid, “Brave the dangers dungeons hold, to find your true reward,” as he welcomed attendees to the conference which is “no longer about games as a niche, but game culture as mass culture”.
Takahashi noted that GamesBeat Summit is “a house of journalism and community”, and told the story of a black man who went to the library every day to hear Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man read out loud, as he could not afford to buy a copy of the book.
The author stated that visibility and being seen is important, and noted that many who had lost jobs came to GamesBeat looking for work, and the company had 20 positions available for job seekers courtesy of Amir Satvat’s community of gaming fans and job seekers.
The founder of GamesBeat, and now its CEO Gina Joseph, aims to strengthen relationships with its audience and partners, and to inspire people in the industry to move forward in these “delicate times” in the gaming industry.