Sony had a big year in 2018, passing 91 million units sold for its PlayStation 4 console. Additionally, the PS4 title Marvel's Spider-Man delivered the best sales of any exclusive game on the console (9 million), while Sony Santa Monica's God of War posted the fourth-best performance (5 million).

In addition to Layden, other speakers will include Sarah Bond, head of global gaming partnerships and development at Xbox/Microsoft; Stanley Pierre-Louis, acting president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, who will discuss what the World Health Organization has "wrong about video games"; and Bryan Intihar, creative director of Marvel's Spider-Man at Insomniac Games, who will speak about the process of making the 2018 superhero game.

Also at this year's event will be speakers Amy Hennig, writer and game director of such games as Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception; Yves Jacquier, executive director of production studios services at Ubisoft; Tim Schafer, president and CEO of Double Fine Productions; and Greg Broadmore, game director at Weta Workshop.