Xsolla and GDC Festival of Gaming Extend Global Partnership in San Francisco for March 2027

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 20, 2026--

Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, and GDC Festival of Gaming today announced the renewal of the Diamond level partnership for 2027. Together, Xsolla and GDC are creating opportunities for collaboration and connections for the video game developer community in San Francisco. Part of that effort is featuring the Xsolla Clubhouse in the expanded GDC campus experience, where the two will host the GDC Scholarship Program, Powered by Xsolla. The program brings 75 game developers to San Francisco from March 1 through 5, with their passes and hotels fully covered.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260820129629/en/

“By expanding our partnership on the GDC Scholarship program to 75 studios, we are giving even more developers the opportunity to showcase what they are great at - creating incredible video game experiences for players around the world,” described Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Xsolla. "We are honored to collaborate with Informa to feature the Xsolla Clubhouse within the GDC Festival of Gaming campus. Our vision is to build all the things to help video game developers build successful businesses by creating an all-inclusive ecosystem for the community.”

The game industry's premier annual gathering brings together developers, publishers, and innovators from around the world. GDC 2027 represents an unparalleled opportunity for emerging talent and studios to connect with industry leaders, discover partnership opportunities, and accelerate their video game business. To ensure the next generation of game creators can access this transformative experience, Xsolla and GDC have partnered to remove financial barriers for 75 scholarship recipients.

Each scholarship recipient will receive a GDC Festival Pass and four nights of hotel accommodations during the event, ensuring they can fully participate in the conference experience. Recipients will also be invited to a co-hosted luncheon at the Xsolla Clubhouse as part of the broader GDC Campus experience, which spans Moscone Center and nearby official partner spaces on Howard Street. Scheduled between conference sessions, the luncheon will feature welcome remarks from Xsolla and GDC leadership and create meaningful connections between scholarship recipients, mentors, and industry veterans.

"GDC Festival of Gaming is excited to collaborate with Xsolla to ensure this scholarship program offers true accessibility into the video games industry," said Suzy Pallett, President at GDC Festival of Gaming. "By supporting emerging creators from every background, GDC and Xsolla are investing in the future of our industry and ensuring the next generation of storytellers have the resources and connections they need to succeed."

The scholarship program anchors Xsolla's presence at GDC 2027 as a renewed Diamond partner. As part of the expanded GDC Campus experience, Xsolla's Howard Street location will serve as a hub for scholarship recipients and attendees all week, complementing the core conference programming at Moscone Center. Xsolla will manage the entire application process, from submission through selection.

Applications open October 1, 2026. Learn more at Xsolla.com or by visiting https://xsolla.pro/GDC2027

About Xsolla

Xsolla is a global commerce company that builds and provides all the things developers need to launch, grow, and monetize video games. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the company supports studios of every size, from indie to AAA, with solutions across direct-to-consumer commerce, intelligent payments, entertainment-based IP, and player engagement products. Xsolla helps developers fund, distribute, market, and monetize their games at scale. Trusted by more than 70% of the top 100 highest-grossing games, Xsolla operates as the merchant of record across 200+ geographies with access to 1,000+ local payment methods worldwide. Grounded in a deep belief in the future of gaming, Xsolla is resolute in bringing opportunities together and unlocking growth for creators everywhere.

For more information, visit xsolla.com

About GDC Festival of Gaming

GDC Festival of Gaming is the world’s largest professional game industry event with market-defining content for programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision makers and others involved in the development of interactive games and immersive experiences. GDC brings together the global game industry community year-round through events and digital media, including GDC Vault, GameDeveloper.com, Independent Games Festival, and the Game Developers Choice Awards.

GDC is organized by Informa PLC, a leading B2B information services group and one of the leading B2B Events organizers in the world. To learn more and for the latest news and information visit www.informa.com.

© 2026 Xsolla. All rights reserved.

Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla

Graphic: Xsolla

MILAN (AP) — As Italy has been plunged into a period of extreme heat, social media accounts amplified and falsified reports about the impact on the production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and a regional bank that stores the cheese wheels as collateral for loans.

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is made according to strict specifications within defined geographic areas in the Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy. Milk comes from dairy cattle fed only on locally grown forage, and the wheels must be aged for a minimum of 12 months, and can continue to 24, 36 or 40 months.

To help producers manage their capital, a handful of banks accept the cheese wheels as collateral on loans during the aging process — the largest of which is the Credito Emiliano S.p.A’s Magazini Generali delle Tagliate (MGT), which has been operating since 1953.

Social media claimed that the extreme heat that swept Italy threatened both the cheese and its main cheese bank.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Extreme heat is creating a “Great Parmesan Crisis” threatening both Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Italy’s “cheese banks,” where hundreds of thousands of wheels of the cheese are stored as loan collateral.

THE FACTS: Fortunately, wheels of the beloved cheese are neatly tucked away in cool storage and aging nicely while the rest of Italy sweats. MGT, which stores 500,000 cheese wheels valued at 300 million euros ($350 million) in two storage facilities, confirmed all is well.

Giancarlo Ravanetti, MGT’s general manager, said the extreme heat had pushed energy consumption to keep the facilities cool up by 30%.

But he said neither the cheese wheels nor MGT’s operations were at risk due to the extreme temperatures, which this summer have regularly neared 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

“The warehouses have not been affected and have continued operating normally, ensuring the cheese wheels are stored and aged under optimal conditions,” he said, adding that he does not anticipate longer-term consequences, even if extreme heat persists in the future.

MGT has been investing for several years to make the warehouses more energy efficient. It has replaced two obsolete refrigeration units with a high-efficiency unit, improved thermal insulation of the buildings and installed photovoltaic systems at both warehouses, reaching an installed capacity of 1.5 MW.

The Parmigiano Reggiano consortium, which protects and regulates the prized hard cheese, acknowledges the “long-standing challenge” of heat waves, as extreme heat can reduce milk production significantly, with “yields potentially falling by around 10%.”

But, the consortium said in a statement that Parmigiano Reggiano production “is not currently at risk.”

It emphasized that cows are mostly fed preserved and dried forage to guarantee supply even during drought. Farms that supply 70% of the milk used to make the cheese are equipped with fans, controlled water-spraying systems and environmental monitoring to keep the cows comfortable. The remaining milk supply comes from hilly and mountain areas where temperatures are generally cooler, the consortium said.

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

FILE - Parmigiano Reggiano Parmesan cheese wheels are stored in Noceto, near Parma, Italy, Oct. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)