Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, today announced its presence at GamesBeat Summit 2026, taking place May 18–19 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles. Xsolla is presenting multiple featured panel sessions at one of gaming’s most senior and deal-driven annual gatherings, addressing two of the industry’s most urgent and underserved conversations: a myth-busting examination of the global games market and a practical deep dive into financing models built for today’s realities.
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GamesBeat Summit 2026, themed “Experience Meets Acceleration,” convenes more than 600 senior gaming professionals, 70% of whom are at the Director level or above, including C-level executives, investors, publishers, developers, and dealmakers. The summit has earned a reputation as one of the industry’s premier venues for high-stakes networking and deal-making, drawing the leaders shaping the next chapter of global gaming.
Xsolla’s sessions arrive at an inflection point for the industry. Global gaming revenue is shifting across regions, traditional publishing and investment relationships are being renegotiated, and developers at every stage are being forced to make consequential decisions with incomplete or inaccurate information. Both sessions are designed to change that.
Session 1: New & Emergent Financing for Games & Start-ups Beyond the Investment Peak: New Financing Models for Game Studios
The interactive session convenes one of the most practically focused financing conversations GamesBeat Summit has hosted, bringing together leaders from across the investment and commerce spectrum to address the structural shifts that have fundamentally altered how studios can and should fund their games.
Thinking beyond the investment peak with new financing models for game studios, Dara Willoughby of The Raine Group, Justin Yuan of TIRTA Ventures, and Justin Berenbaum of Xsolla join moderator Eric Goldberg of Playable Worlds for a panel built around a clear premise: the 2020–2022 investment peak is over, and the studios that thrive in what comes next will be those that understand the full range of financing tools now available to them.
The panel on Monday will examine UA-based debt financing, completion financing, and blended capital model structures that have gained traction as alternatives to traditional equity rounds and publisher deals, particularly for studios that have proven product-market fit but face constrained paths to conventional investment. Panelists will offer direct guidance on how to evaluate each model against studio stage, revenue profile, and long-term goals, moving beyond theory to the practical decisions founders and finance leads are making right now.
“The investment landscape studios navigated two years ago looks fundamentally different today,” said Justin Berenbaum, Senior Vice President of Global Industry Relations & Funding General Manager at Xsolla. “This panel is about giving founders and studio leaders a realistic toolkit, not just theoretical options, but an honest look at what each model actually means in practice.”
Session 2: BOSS Mode: Women in Gaming, Entertainment, and Tech Breakfast: Driving Results: Leadership Strategies from Women in Games
The May 19 morning breakfast session brings together senior women leaders across gaming, tech, and entertainment to tackle one of leadership’s most pressing questions: how do executives translate their positions and responsibilities into measurable outcomes? The panel moves past the abstract to examine the real decisions, structural moves, and strategic bets that have driven meaningful returns for their organizations and the broader industry.
Sophia Lisaius, VP of People & Culture at Xsolla, joins Amanda Kruse of Blumhouse Games, Zoe Bell of NYT Games, and Leanne Loombe of Annapurna Interactive for a conversation moderated by GamesBeat’s Rachel Kaser.
“The most underestimated driver of business outcomes is how well an organization actually develops and deploys its people. That’s not a soft idea; it shows up in retention, in velocity, in whether teams can execute when the pressure is on. That’s what I’m looking forward to digging into,” said Sophia Lisaius, VP of People & Culture at Xsolla.
Session 3: State of Play: A Global and UAE Perspective
The Tuesday Main Stage session pairs Xsolla Chief Marketing & Growth Officer Berkley Egenes with Faisal Kazim, Executive Director of the Dubai Film and Games Commission, for a wide-ranging examination of where the global gaming market actually stands versus what’s being rumored, misreported, or misunderstood. The session will be moderated by Dean Takahashi, a longtime games journalist and Editor at GamesBeat.
Drawing on Xsolla’s future-forward mission to build all the things to power game monetization and distribution, Egenes will deliver a data-grounded global State of Play examining which markets are growing, which narratives about the state of play are myths vs. reality, and where the real opportunities lie heading into the second half of 2026. Kazim will add a critical on-the-ground perspective from the UAE and broader Middle East, a region increasingly central to global gaming investment and development.
Together, the session offers attendees a rare dual-lens macro and regional view of an industry that has spent the last two years navigating contraction, consolidation, and cautious optimism in equal measure.
“There’s a lot of noise about what’s happening in global gaming and a lot of it doesn’t match what we’re seeing from our position serving developers and publishers in over 200 countries,” said Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla. “This session is an opportunity to separate signal from noise and give the industry a clearer read on where real momentum is building.”
Studios and investors interested in connecting with the Xsolla team at GamesBeat Summit 2026 can learn more at xsolla.com/events
About Xsolla
Xsolla is a global commerce company that builds and provides all the things developers need to launch, grow, and monetize video games. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the company supports studios of every size, from indie to AAA, with solutions across direct-to-consumer commerce, intelligent payments, entertainment-based IP, and player engagement products. Xsolla helps developers fund, distribute, market, and monetize their games at scale. Trusted by more than 60% of the top 100 highest-grossing games, Xsolla operates as the merchant of record across 200+ geographies with access to over 1,000+ local payment methods worldwide. Grounded in a deep belief in the future of gaming, Xsolla is resolute in bringing opportunities together and unlocking growth for creators everywhere.
For more information, visit xsolla.com
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