GamesBeat unveiled the winners of its eight annual Visionary Awards during the 2025 GamesBeat Summit event in Los Angeles.
The Visionary Award winner is Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) president Patricia Vance, and the Up-and-Comer winner is Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr.
GamesBeat editorial director Dean Takahashi started the Visionary Awards in 2018 to recognize industry leaders who took a daring, visionary approach to shaping the future of gaming, forging new paths that have mesmerized audiences and redefined the very nature of video games. Two awards are given every year: the Visionary Award and the Up-and-Comer award. This year’s ceremony was hosted by Andrea Rene, president of Shortie Media and former executive producer of What’s Good Games.
The winners were chosen by a panel of judges from all across the industry, including Xbox president Sarah Bond, Women-Led Games founder Charmaine Duff, and veteran developer John Smedley.
Visionary Award presentation
At the ESRB, Patricia Vance leads the teams responsible for age and content ratings on video games and apps, and enforcing marketing guidelines that’ve been adopted by the whole industry. She’s also a founding member of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), a non-profit organization that operates a global rating and age classification system for digital games and apps
Zebra Partners co-founder Perrin Kaplan introduced Vance on stage, calling her a “respected pioneer on game content ratings,” and a quiet leader who gets it done better than anyone else. Unlike a lot of award winners who tend to be in the public eye, Kaplan noted that Vance’s work is largely behind the scenes, advocating for games and “protecting our industry’s right to govern itself.”
In her acceptance speech, Vance said that over the last 45 years, she’s had the privilege to work in some of the most dynamic and fast-changing industries, from the early days of cable TV to the explosion of interactive media. But her “most meaningful chapter” has been her time at the ESRB, which she first joined over 20 years ago.
“When I joined [the ESRB] in 2002 there was one glaring vulnerability threatening the integrity of the video game industry: Kids could walk into a retail store and buy a mature-rated video game, no questions asked,” said Vance. “So we got to work. We launched the ESRB Retail Council and convinced the biggest retailers to step up.”
By 2009, the Federal Trade Commission recognized that the video game industry had the strongest selling regulatory code and the highest compliance with that code, outpacing even movies and music. Then a landmark moment came when the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that video games are a form of protected speech, with Vance saying it was a “powerful validation of what self-regulation done right can achieve.”
But she said the biggest challenge the ESRB has ever faced is the rise of mobile gaming and the explosion of digital publishing, and creating a rating process that could scale to meet the high volume of games while also “enabling developers to access culturally relevant and compliant ratings in different regions around the world across every platform.” This led to the creation of IARC, and today the system is used by 13 storefronts across mobile, console, VR, and PC, with nine regional rating authorities on board.
“So why does all this matter? Because our work helps reduce risk for publishers, protects the industry from unnecessary regulation, and most importantly, by informing consumers upfront, it safeguards your freedom to create the games you want to make,” said Vance.
She noted how the ESRB operates quietly in the background of the industry, which is how it should be. It’s thankless work most of the time, and she’s often felt invisible at gaming conferences and events.
“So I can’t tell you how much it means to be recognized today. I accept this award on behalf of my extraordinary team back in New York, who are as passionate about this industry as I am, and who are absolutely relentless in their commitment to our mission,” said Vance. “And last but definitely not least, we could not do our work without the staunch and ongoing support of the [Entertainment Software Association] and the many industry leaders who serve on our board of directors.”
Up-and-Comer Award presentation
Xalavier Nelson Jr. is a renowned and prolific indie developer who’s worked on over 90 games in the last eight years, with 15 of them coming from his own studio, Strange Scaffold. Unfortunately, he couldn’t attend GamesBeat Summit in person to accept his Up-and-Comer award. In a video, Cyan Worlds development director Hannah Gamiel introduced Xalavier, saying that she has yet to meet another developer who makes games with the same level of “unbridled creativity” that he does.
“To say his perspective on making games is refreshing is an understatement. This quality of his shines in every single game he makes. Xalavier is somehow wonderfully able to carefully harness meaning within a facade of incredibly absurd settings,” said Gamiel.
In his acceptance video, Nelson Jr. thanked everyone he’s ever worked with at Strange Scaffold and throughout his career, and that without them he wouldn’t be here. He joked that receiving this award was existentially dread-inducing.
“[This award] is for people whose greatest achievements lie ahead of them. I can think of at least three times in the last few years alone where I went, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make games anymore,’” said Nelson Jr.
He urged the audience to keep supporting and showing up for one another, especially in light of the layoffs that’ve plagued the industry over the past few years.
“That’s why, if I can urge for anything from the audience, it is to look at the people around you because systemic issues in this medium — lack of funding, lack of job security — means that the person who’s right next to you, no matter what they’ve achieved, no matter what their talents are, no matter how hard they work and how much you assume they’re going to be fine… If they are showing up on your doorstep, if they are here with you right now, you are that person who will make them fine.
“You are that person who needs to show up for them, because otherwise we can’t guarantee that they are here tomorrow, that they contribute to the future of our medium and what we can be,” said Nelson Jr.
The post The winners of the GamesBeat Summit 2025 Visionary and Up-and-Comer Awards appeared first on Venture Beat.
