Dubai GameExpo Summit 2025 begins today

The Dubai GameExpo Summit 2025 powered by Pocket Gamer Connects has begun, kicking off two days of insightful talks and networking opportunities.

The show began with Steel Media CEO Chris James welcoming guests and discussing the state of the games industry, setting the scene for the rest of the conference schedule.

Representatives from companies such as Sensor Tower, Maysalward, Stellar Gate Games, Steer Studios, Curve Games, Xsolla, UKIE, ID@Xbox and many more are set to take part in sessions, panels and roundtables over the next two days.

Also taking place during the event is the Investment Summit taking place later today, delving into the regional and global investment landscape. Speakers include Hiro Capital’s Spike Laurie and Luke Alvarez, Futura’s Alexsandra Kurdyumova, MGVC’s Nikita Matsokin, Games Ventures’ Mohamed El Sheakh, GEM Capital’s Roman Gurskiy, and Bitkraft Ventures’ Anuj Tandon.

We’ll be reporting live from the show - but don’t forget, if you miss any sessions, we’ll be making a number of top talks available on our the PocketGamer.biz YouTube channel over the next few weeks.

Special events

Outside of the sessions and roundtables, attendees - which include developers, publishers, investors, and tools and service providers - there are a plethora of networking opportunities.

We’ve got Connector SpeedMatch, bringing together developers together with investors and publishers to pitch their games and businesses with an eye to potential deals.

Then there’s The Very Big Indie PItch, another chance for developers to show off their new games and gain valuable feedback from industry experts - as well as the chance to win the much coveted Big Indie Pitch bat!

And don’t forget to head on over to the Big Indie Zone to get your hands on some games and speak with the developers.

Meanwhile, we’ve also got our big event within the event: the MENA Games Industry Awards 2025. The ceremony, which takes place on day two (May 8th) at 12:10 in the main track room, celebrates the very best of the MENA region. Best of luck to all the finalists!

That not enough? The Futura Advice Pitstop will take place at the show across the two days, offering personal, 25-minute consultations on taxes and legal matters.

Futura Digital is a consulting team from the UAE with vast experience in gaming law - and they’ll be on hand to talk about any issues from personal data, trademark and patents and copyright protection, to fighting game clones, relocating your studio, publishing and investment, and more!

There’s also the Xbox Discovery Day on the afternoon of day two (May 8th), with ID@Xbox in town to demystify the Xbox ecosystem and answer your questions about getting onto the platform.

Join us!

If you’re reading this, have yet to purchase a ticket and are thinking you should be here - you can still grab yourself a ticket! You can register on the site right here.

See you at the show!