Behind The Scenes Xbox Devs Day 2024, Seoul
Last April, Arsanesia received an exclusive invitation to attend the Xbox Devs Day event held in Seoul, Korea. This event was specifically designed for game studios already partnered with Xbox to get the latest updates on both technical and business fronts. Since the event is under NDA, I can’t delve too deeply into the topics, but I’ll try to give a general overview of how Xbox engages with developers within its ecosystem. FYI, we covered our own travel, visa, and living expenses. However, developers from SEA can request accommodation support if needed. Thank you, Xbox :)
The event took place on April 18–19. In my previous post, I shared the excitement of the roadshow to studios in Korea on April 17. You can read that if you haven’t already. The event was held at the Microsoft Korea office, located right next to Gyeongbokgung Palace. So, every time we went there, we got to see the Korean palace from above.
On the first day, we were on our way to the location by 8 AM. Ling from the Xbox team was there to usher us to the lift. Upon reaching the top, we registered. It turned out that most of the developers present were from Korea. There were a few from SEA and some from India. That morning, we were treated to a coffee break first, with neatly arranged and adorable cakes to enjoy, as well as a coffee machine to keep the caffeine flowing all day.
As time went on, developers from Indonesia started arriving. There were people from Mojiken, Toge, Masshive, Digital Happiness, Agate, and Mythic Protocol. Since I was rooming with Glory Jam, we had already been together from the hotel to the venue. As usual, the Indonesians had a little reunion, saying hi to familiar faces from the Xbox team like Jun, Yujin, and Agnes, as well as friends from SEA that we often meet. Finally, the event began.
The event was opened by a rep from Xbox Korea who explained the schedule. Overall, it was divided into the first day for technical topics and the second day for business topics, with some one-on-one meetings with the Xbox team in between. On the first day, the content was super, hyper, mega in-depth technical. Honestly, even with my IT background, it was quite overwhelming, let alone for non-IT folks sitting in the front :p But for me, it was very nice to know and I really appreciate Xbox flying in their team from around the world to give these updates. If you’re a technical person, you’d be very happy with the topics.
The second day’s topics were business and market-related. This resonated much more with me. Here, Xbox really opened up their data. This was extremely helpful for us to strategize and plan our pipeline. What’s great is that the content from the second day was also very applicable to any platform. I love attending NDA events like this because we get to see data that’s not public and can make strategic decisions based on that insight.
Besides the two days, I also had two one-on-one sessions. The first session was a technical discussion with Yujin, covering everything from account and dashboard questions to the unresolved topic of devkits. The other one-on-one session was with the Xbox Game Pass team and other Xbox members to pitch Arsanesia’s latest game. Super happy because the feedback was very positive :’)
And aside from the official events, what I loved most were the hangouts. We had an official hangout with all Devs Day participants at a restaurant on the ground floor of the Microsoft office. Since it was roundtable style, conversations were limited to the same people. But the food was delicious and it was an all-you-can-eat buffet :) Then there was an after-party with a few people at a unique, traditional-feeling bar. The next day, Toge treated us to a meal with some SEA devs. There was also a day where everyone was in Myeongdong for shopping, and I accidentally bumped into many people at various spots, from the Nike Shop to Olive Young :p
Was attending this event worth it? From a business and networking perspective, absolutely irreplaceable. From a technical standpoint, it might only be worth it for those whose games are highly optimized and implementing quite advanced features. Unfortunately, the materials are under NDA, so I can’t share much. But hopefully, there will be more Xbox events in the future with more open content :)
