GDC 2026: Build for What's Next

Xbox and Microsoft celebrate Game Developers Conference 2026 by sharing how we're giving developers the freedom to create and play on any device, with anyone, anywhere. We want to make it easier for developers to build and ship games, provide more ways to reach players, and offer more freedom to bring their bold creative ideas to life.

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Where You'll Find Us

This year, GDC takes place from March 9-13 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Attendees that come by the Xbox Lounge in Moscone South Lobby can journey through our exhibit featuring key moments across 25 years of Xbox history, meet Xbox Subject Matter Experts, learn what steps they can take to begin building for the future, and sign up for our newsletter to receive a community pin.

This year, for the first time, we are hosting the Xbox Dev Summit, where we’ll be presenting six sponsored sessions to help prepare attendees to build for what's next. The Xbox Dev Summit is in West Hall Room 3001/3003 and will be kicking off with Jason Ronald, VP of Next Gen, at 10:10am on Wednesday, March 11.

Whether you're an indie developer or a seasoned professional, speakers from Xbox, Windows, Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, and King will be presenting insights for every stage of your development journey, so be sure to check out the full schedule below.

Monday, March 9

Machine Learning Forum: Ask the Experts

Speakers: Zhen Zhai (Blizzard Entertainment), Julien Merceron (Orion Productions), Martin Singh-Blom (Embark Studios), Alessandro Sestini (Electronic Arts, SEED), Alexis Rolland (Ubisoft, La Forge) Alexandre Moufarek, (Google DeepMind)
Time: 10:30 am - 11:30am

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Image with text reading Powering Games, Empowering Creators with images from six video games

Welcome Back: Updating Diablo Immortal's Returning Player Experience

Speaker: Nicole Maiorano (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 11:50am - 12:20pm

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Ask Video Game Lawyers Anything (Legal AMA): This Normally Costs Money!

Speakers: Angelo Alcid (Microsoft Corp.), Yan Perng (Blizzard Entertainment), Ryan Black (DLA Piper (Canada) LLP), Brandon Huffman (Odin Law and Media)
Time: 1:50pm - 2:50pm

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Game Designer's Notebook

Speakers: Kenny Shea Dinkin (King), Cara Ely (Meta), Rohit Crasta (The New York Times), Jesse Schell (Schell Games)
Time: 3:10pm - 4:10pm

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Game Audio Programmer Roundtable Day 1

Speakers: Guy Somberg (Blizzard Entertainment), Tomas Neumann (CD Projekt Red)
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

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Aged by Adventure: Crafting the Time-Worn World of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Speakers: António Figueiredo (MachineGames), Michael Tran (MachineGames), Vytautas Katarzis (MachineGames)
Time: 5:00 – 6:00pm

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Tuesday, March 10

The Art & Science of Evergreen Games: Running Live Services That Last (Presented by King)

Speakers: Eva Ryott (King), Ryan Cooper (Mojang), Romain Jemma (King)
Time: 10:10am - 11:10am

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Thriving Players Workshop

Speakers: Natasha Miller (Blizzard Entertainment), Matthew Soeth (Thriving in Games Group), Weszt Hart (Riot Games), Josh Chapdelaine (Thriving in Games Group), Ariana Barcenas Kanemoto (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 10:30am - 12:30pm

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Designing Stadium: Crafting a New Game Mode for 'Overwatch'

Speakers: Scott Hwang (Blizzard Entertainment), Larry Wu (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

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The Invisible Layer: Redesigning Communication and Navigation in 'Candy Crush Soda Saga'

Speaker: Liza Dobrovoljc (King)
Time: 4:20pm - 5:20pm

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The Universal Language of Monsters: Designing Creature Vocals in 'Diablo Immortal'

Speakers: Todd Castillo (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

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Wednesday, March 11

Xbox Developer Summit Keynote: Building for the Future with Xbox

Speakers: Jason Ronald (Xbox)
Time: 10:10am – 11:10am

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Xbox Logo GDC

Bridging East and West Roundtable: Opportunities for Global Game Collaboration (Presented by the IGDA)

Speakers: Bo Mei (GoodDay Solution), Chase Shi (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 10:30am - 11:30am

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DirectX State of the Union 2026: DirectStorage and Beyond

Speakers: Shawn Hargreaves, Danny Chen
Time: 11:30am - 12:30pm

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QA is Your Strongest Design Ally

Speakers: Carey Littlefield (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 11:50am - 12:20pm

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Press Start: Get Your PC Game Ready for Xbox in One Day

Speakers: Travis Bradshaw (Microsoft), Andy McCalib (Microsoft)
Time: 12:45pm - 1:45pm

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Audio Optimization Microtalks

Speakers: Colin Walder (CD PROJEKT RED), Guy Somberg (Blizzard Entertainment), David Su (Naughty Dog)
Time: 1:50pm - 2:50pm

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Future Proof Your Game: Streamlined Workflows for a Multi Device World

Speakers: Karla Larriva (Microsoft), Zach Hooper (Microsoft), Jon Martin (Microsoft)
Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm

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Build Once, Play Anywhere: PlayFab Powers Xbox Cross-Platform Game Services

Speakers: Anthony Nguyen (Microsoft)
Time: 3:40pm - 4:40pm

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Fight and Ye Shall Receive: How CWA's Game Worker Union Campaigns Are Changing the Industry!

Speakers: Josiah Clark (Blizzard Entertainment and CWA Local 9510), Juniper Dowell (Bethesda Softworks and CWA Local 2108), Vee Nguyen (SEGA of America and CWA Local 9510), Alex Speidel (Paizo and CWA Local 7800), Carolyn Jong (United Videogame Workers CWA Local 9433)
Time: 3:40pm - 4:40pm

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Building the Cultural World of 'Indiana Jones and the Great Circle'

Speakers: Kate Edwards (Geogrify/SetJetters)
Time: 4:30pm – 5:30pm

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Rip & Tear: Breaking Down the Rendering of 'DOOM: The Dark Ages'

Speakers: Dominik Lazare (id Software), Philip Hammer (id Software)
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

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DOOM The Dark Ages GDC image

Game Audio Programmer Roundtable Day 2

Speakers: Guy Somberg (Blizzard Entertainment), Tomas Neumann (CD Projekt Red)
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

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Leveling Up the Xbox Marketplace: Tools to Sell, Grow, and Reach Every Player

Speakers: Brady Woods (Microsoft)
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm

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Thursday, March 12

Windows Game Development with Visual Studio 2026 and GitHub Copilot

Speakers: Hamza Usmani (Microsoft), David Li (Microsoft)
Time: 10:10am – 11:10am

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Visual Studio GDC

Xbox Partner Panel: Maximizing Discovery and Reaching Beyond for the Next 25 Years of Play

Speakers: Xalavier Nelson Jr (Strange Scaffold), Andrea Rene (Andrea Rene), Matt Jeffery (Rebellion), Marcus Morgan (Obsidian Entertainment)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm

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DirectX: Bringing Console-Level GPU Tools to Windows

Speakers: Austin Kinross (Microsoft), Budi Purnomo (AMD), Steven Tovey (Intel), Kevin Hawkins (Qualcomm)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm

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Evolving DirectX for the ML Era on Windows

Speakers: Max McMullen (Microsoft), Hisham Chowdhury (AMD), Steven Tovey (Intel), Don Brittain (NVIDIA)
Time: 12:45pm – 1:45pm

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Advanced Shader Delivery on Windows

Speakers: Jesse Natalie (Microsoft), Simon Dompierre (Beenox)
Time: 3:40pm – 4:40pm

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Gaming AI at Xbox: Responsible Innovation for Player Experiences

Speakers: Fatima Kardar (Microsoft), Sonali Yadav (Microsoft)
Time: 3:40pm – 4:40pm

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Friday, March 13

The Player-Centric Engine: CRM's Role in Enabling Cross-Functional Growth for 'Candy Crush Saga'

Speakers: Salome Gozalishvili (King)
Time: 11:40am - 12:10pm

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Killer Art Portfolio or Portfolio Killer Part 2: Portfolio Reviews

Speakers: Greg Foertsch (Bit Reactor), Piero Macgowan (Bit Reactor), Gaurav Mathur (gamedevmap), Inmar Salvatier (Maxis), Jeff Parrott (Blizzard), Jade Law (Wardog Studios), Sarah LeBlanc (Bit Reactor), Rembert Montald (Lightspeed LA), Jordan DeVries (Respawn Entertainment), Gary Riley (Raven Software), Cutlar Nordyke III (Keywords Studios), Greg Knight (Lucasfilm Games), Ashley Sparling (K9 Digital), Jeff A. Johnson (inXile Entertainment), Jeff Skalski (Yellow Brick Games Inc.)
Time: 11:40am – 2:40pm

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Zenith: Diffusion Model Driven Map Generation

Speakers: Zhen Zhai (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 11:40am - 12:10pm

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Lessons Learned in Running a Game the Hard Way: How Blizzard Revitalized 'Overwatch'

Speakers: Aaron Keller (Blizzard Entertainment)
Time: 1:10pm - 2:10pm

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Game Audio Programmer Roundtable Day 3

Speakers: Guy Somberg (Blizzard Entertainment), Tomas Neumann (CD Projekt Red)
Time: 1:30 - 2:30pm

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