The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced the launch of the Interactive Innovation Conference (iicon), a new event designed to connect visionaries, thought leaders and innovators from across industries to harness the power of interactive entertainment.
Taking place April 27 to April 30, 2026 at the Fontainebleau Resort in Las Vegas, attendees will gain exclusive access to visionary keynotes, engaging discussions and workshops, and elite networking opportunities with executives shaping the future of entertainment, business and technology.
The iicon event promises to bring together a broad spectrum of sectors that converge with interactive entertainment, including film, television and music, as well as sports, healthcare, education, finance and more, said Stanley Pierre-Louis, CEO of the ESA, in an interview with GamesBeat.
The event is the first brand new industry-focused event that the ESA has scheduled since the demise of E3 in 2023 — outside of its charity-focused Nite to Unite annual dinners at the Game Developers Conference.
“For decades, video games have been at the forefront of technological and cultural innovation,” said Pierre-Louis. “With iicon, we are creating a space for visionaries across industries to come together, connect and reimagine what’s possible through interactive entertainment.”
“The Entertainment Software Association and its member companies are among the innovators and leaders shaping the future of culture, business and human connection. It’s a natural role for ESA to host and support an event that fosters an open exchange of new ideas with our peer industry leaders,” said Doug Bowser, chairman of the ESA, in a statement.
Bowser added, “iicon is bringing together change makers from across industries to envision how the strengths of the interactive entertainment industry can break entirely new ground.”
Attendees will learn from and engage with industry icons, including leaders from Amazon Games, Disney, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Games.
“We’re really excited about iicon, the Interactive Innovation Conference, because there’s never been an opportunity to bring so many different change makers together to talk about the transformative force of interactive entertainment,” Pierre-Louis said. “So many of the conversations we have within the video game industry are to ourselves and so many of the conversations that other industries have are to their industries. Every once in a while you see an opportunity to collaborate with another industry but it’s very limited and we saw an opportunity to grow that using interactive entertainment as convening force.”
The aim is to have conversations about how to propel growth and audience engagement and audience building at a global scale, he said.
“It’s really the first-of-its-kind summit designed to connect visionaries, thought leaders, and innovators from across industries to harness the power of interactive entertainment,” Pierre-Louis said. We see this as an opportunity for different leaders and executives to connect and collaborate, to exchange information about how they see growth occurring, to understand some of the marketing outreach success that our industry has seen.”
The member companies said they want to host other industries and talk about the impact video games can have on them. He noted games are having impact in medicine, where doctors use virtual reality and augmented reality games to train for surgery. Games for health have been developed to treat health conditions like ADHD and Alzheimer’s. In the education sector, 75% of teachers have used digital-based games for their lessons. Astronauts use it to be prepared before going to the International Space Station.
“So video games are part of so many different functions in different industries and yet we’re not having that conversation about what else video games can be doing to bring audiences together,” he said.
Support from 11 big game companies
As the global video game industry is set to surpass $300 billion in projected revenue by 2027, iicon will be the premier summit for discovering new opportunities powered by the industry and its technology.
Executive leaders from some of the video game industry’s biggest companies expressed enthusiasm for iicon as a key opportunity to drive innovation and foster collaboration across sectors.
“The games industry is constantly evolving, and the intersection with other disciplines is more pronounced than ever before,” said Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games, in a statement. “iicon will bring together some of the brightest minds from the games industry to navigate present challenges and harness the opportunities ahead. Amazon Games is proud to support this new endeavor.”
“Video games have been a major contributor to our global culture by blending entertainment, creating communities and pushing new technologies,” said John Heinecke, Chief Publishing Officer, Square Enix. “iicon will be an incredible forum where business leaders and innovators can join forces to celebrate our industry’s achievements and to build the future of entertainment together.”
“Take-Two Interactive is a long-standing member and proud supporter of ESA,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive. “iicon represents the ongoing evolution of the interactive entertainment industry and its irrefutable ascendance as the most beloved art form and cultural influence in the world today. We look forward to participating in this event and convening with a broad array of stakeholders to further what we believe to be one of the strongest periods in our industry’s history.”
“Video games push the boundaries of technology and creativity, extending far beyond entertainment,” said Laurent Detoc, chief direct-to-player officer at Ubisoft. “We look forward to iicon bringing together visionary leaders from the industry and beyond to shape the future impact of games.”
“At Xbox, our mission is to bring the joy of gaming to players anywhere they want, while creating opportunities for the amazing creators behind them,” said Sarah Bond, president of Xbox, in a statement. “We appreciate the ESA establishing iicon as a platform to deepen connections among executives and thought leaders from within gaming, and from a wide range of partner industries. Together, we will collaborate, invent and create – and together we will all grow.”
Games at the center of the conversation
Asked if this was meant to explore how video games are influencing other industries, Pierre-Louis agreed. He said quite often people forget to note the mass market technologies like 3D animation that starts with gaming and migrates into other fields.
“We’re really proud of what we do and how we’ve shaped society, how we’ve helped influence business. And this is a forum to discuss it and for people to think about how else they can advance what we’ve already started,” he said.
I asked if the tech platform companies would be there too. It would be something to see Apple CEO Tim Cook speak alongside Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, but I’m fairly skeptical that would ever happen.
“The great thing about this opportunity is it really invites everyone. So we are looking at other companies within the video game space who might want to participate. We’re looking at platforms because they play a pivotal role, but they don’t only use those platforms for video games. They use them for a variety of other tools and for every other business opportunities. And so we’ll be looking to them as potential participants. And we’re also looking beyond the platforms. We’re looking at finance. We’re looking at education. We’re looking at health care. We’re looking at sports,” he said.
So far the conversation has been internal, but now it will be opened up to others. He noted member companies have missed E3 when it comes to enabling leaders to come together and have conversations. This event is going to be more like a thought-leadership forum.
Asked how this would fit in with other events like our own GamesBeat Summit and Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, (which now has a coming business-to-business event headed by Christopher Dring), Pierre-Louis said, “We really looked at this as an opportunity to reach a broader audience. If you think about all of the game industry events that occur over the course of the year, they’re really targeting different sectors of the video game community, whether it’s players, executives, … developers. What we’re trying to do is really bring a cross-section of business leaders to an audience of business leaders.”
He said all the conferences also have a target audience within the video game space. But the ESA is looking to broaden that conversation about the impact of video games.
“Ultimately, that helps our industry in creating and shining a light on the broad impact it has,” he said. “So many times when we talk to people about the impact of our industry, they’re surprised and excited to learn about things that we do. It’s in all walks of life. When we speak about it within our industry, people all understand the impact of the industry. But really highlighting that to a broader audience will help lift up the audience. It helps us certainly with our advocacy, but more importantly, it brings together business leaders from different sectors and showcases what’s possible through collaboration.”
Having political impact
Pierre-Louis noted this was happening the same week where the ESA had to issue a statement about the “significant harm” that could happen to game companies if tariffs went into effect.
Asked if politicians would be invited to participate, Pierre-Louis answered, “There’s certainly an opportunity to have policymakers and government officials participate in some way because how they view our industry really impacts how they govern. And so we will want to think about the best approach. Right now, our focus is on ensuring that we have the right audience and the right participants to be a part of this conversation because that’s what’s going to drive the the impactful discussions.”
In turn, that will impact how policy makers lead and bring together the leaders of different industries.
“We’re very excited about bringing together something that we have not seen before, which is placing interactive entertainment at the center of a conversation and bringing others in to talk about the impact that interactive entertainment has had in their industries and how it might help grow what they’re doing in ways that benefit audiences on a global basis in a variety of sectors.”
A replacement for E3? No.
“We’re very excited about the initial support we received from these iconic leaders who are our members. And we’re excited about reaching out to leaders in film, television, and music, but also in sports, healthcare, education, finance, and more,” Pierre-Louis said. “We have 11 companies already excited about participating at iicon, and we look forward to bringing more in.”
The ESA hasn’t yet decided who will stage the event. Before E3 collapsed, the ESA tried to tap Reedpop, the creator of the PAX shows, to revive the sagging event. The group wants it to be a professional event with high standards, but there’s no further description to it yet.
Pierre-Louis did not say how many people would be invited to the event — whether it was in the hundreds or thousands. But he did say it was a “summit” and is more of a business conference, rather than an expo or showcase of games.
Pierre-Louis said he could not trace the origins of the event. But it was based on what would come next after the ESA decided to “sunset” E3.
“There were opportunities for our members and for other companies to make announcements through digital means, through online means, and to reach the audience that they wanted to reach,” he said. “But there was no opportunity for leadership to convene, for our companies to convene and to think about the scope of our industry.”
By noticing the vacuum created by E3’s absence, the ESA moved to create this new event where different industries could come together around games and game technology.
“It’s about being in the DNA and being able to take that out into the world in a new way that really excites (not only) fans when they see it, but audiences of all kinds. And so we’d love to figure that out as well, partly to have these industries collaborate on what that means to benefit one another,” Pierre-Louis said.
Event Details and more
Dates: April 27-30, 2026
Location: Fontainebleau Resort Las Vegas
Audience: By invitation only. iicon is tailored for visionaries, thought leaders and innovators across industries that intersect with interactive entertainment. Interested attendees and sponsors can pre-register and sign up for updates at iicon.com.
In other news, the ESA and the Game Developers Conference (GDC) announced a first-of-its-kind accessibility initiative aimed at improving the player experience for more people. The session will take place during the GDC Main Stage Presentation on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m., in San Francisco.
The session includes ESA Senior Vice President Aubrey Quinn, an accessibility consultant; speaker and journalist Paul Amadeus Lane; and accessibility leaders from five tech and video game companies — Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America and Ubisoft.
The full details of this initiative will be revealed during the GDC Main Stage presentation. The ESA is also holding its Nite to Unite charity auction and dinner on the evening of March 18 during the GDC.
