The Game Developers Conference is back in San Francisco this week, bringing one of the industry’s largest annual gatherings to Moscone Center as game studios, platform companies, technology vendors, and independent creators converge on the city for five days of talks, networking, and product-focused sessions. GDC 2026 runs from March 9 through March 13 at Moscone Center, with the event now operating under its “Festival of Gaming” branding.
Organizers are positioning this year’s conference as a broader business-to-business meeting point for the games industry, spanning design, programming, publishing, marketing, investment, and live operations. GDC’s official materials describe the event as a place where the full professional games business comes together, while the Moscone Center lists it as the world’s largest and most influential professional event for the game development community.
The biggest headline speakers include Hideo Kojima, founder of KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, and Rob Pardo, founder of Bonfire Studios and former Blizzard chief creative officer. GDC says Kojima’s appearance marks the event’s first keynote in five years, while Pardo is scheduled for the festival keynote on Thursday morning in North Hall.
Those marquee names help anchor a conference that also features executives and senior leaders from some of gaming’s biggest companies. Microsoft Xbox is sending Jason Ronald, the company’s vice president for next-generation Xbox work, for a session titled “Building for the Future with Xbox.” Epic Games is represented by Steve Allison, vice president and general manager of the Epic Games Store, in a session on distribution and storefront strategy. Nintendo is on the schedule with producer Kenta Motokura and programmer Tatsuya Kurihara for a session tied to “Donkey Kong Bananza.”
The list of major companies involved stretches well beyond those headliners. Official GDC sessions include participants from Google Cloud, Electronic Arts, Unity, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Apple, Microsoft Xbox, Epic Games, Valve, Meta, Ubisoft, Blizzard Entertainment, and Google DeepMind, showing how wide the event’s corporate footprint has become. One Monday session on AI and game creation alone features speakers from Google Cloud, EA, Unity, and Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Apple is making a more visible push at this year’s conference as well. AppleInsider reported that the company planned three sessions at GDC 2026 focused on hardware, game ports, and App Store strategy. Official schedule listings show Apple-backed sessions including “Maximize Your Game’s Potential on the App Store,” featuring Apple’s Charlyn Keating alongside developers from CD PROJEKT RED.
The conference also reflects how international the modern games business has become. NetEase said ahead of the show that it would deliver five talks at GDC 2026, including sessions tied to “Marvel Rivals,” “Where Winds Meet,” “LifeAfter,” and “Sword of Justice.” That adds another major global publisher to a conference lineup already crowded with platform holders, engine makers, infrastructure providers, and large publishers.
GDC’s program suggests this year’s San Francisco gathering is not centered on one single trend, even with AI playing a visible role. The event includes tracks in business strategy, design, audio, narrative, visual development, culture and sustainability, and game technology, alongside summits focused on areas such as machine learning, accessibility, and tools. Organizers have also added executive-focused programming through the Luminaries Speaker Series and new networking formats through GamePlan and GDC Nights.
For San Francisco, GDC remains one of the clearest signs that the city still occupies a central place in the live events calendar for the games and technology industries. The conference brings together not just developers and studio creatives, but also platform operators, cloud companies, app marketplace teams, and senior business leaders from across the broader interactive entertainment ecosystem.
With Kojima and Pardo as marquee draws, and with companies including Microsoft, Nintendo, Epic, Apple, Sony, Google, Meta, Valve, Ubisoft, EA, and NetEase represented across the schedule, GDC 2026 is shaping up as one of the Bay Area’s most significant industry gatherings of the month. In San Francisco, it will serve not only as a showcase for new ideas in game development, but as a snapshot of where the business of games is heading next.
For more on the Bay Area’s major March tech events, read our coverage of NVIDIA’s GTC conference in San Jose.
