The External Development Summit (XDS) is a three-day event for the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

with its first edition held in 2013, and hosted annually in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, BC, Canada. The summit was established in order to share video game development best practices in the areas of 2D and

3D graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for the purposes of perfor ...

Animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

Software Engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...

, Audio,

Quality Assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to assure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

and Localization. Members of th
XDS Advisory Committee
are responsible for the design and delivery of the event. The event receives hundreds of attendees annually, representing 45 countries in addition to local Vancouver companies. Notable companies that have attended XDS include

Microsoft Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

and

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher, and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on to develop ...

. XDS receives international delegations from countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica and the Philippines. The event traditionally consists of presentations, panel discussions, meeting system, business meetings, an expo and social events. XDS hosted its 10th annual event in 2022, hosting 700+ international attendees. XDS 2022 featured a proprietary event platform, XDS Connect, which facilitated B2B meetings and a calendar function that helped attendees manage their week.

Notable Components

Presentations and Panels

Presentations and panel discussions make up the educational component of the event. There is a formal submission process for all topics and speakers. The XDS Advisory Committee reviews all submissions and selects finalists for the event program. Past notable speakers have included Peter Moore and

Andrea Reimer Andrea Reimer is a Canadian politician, who served on Vancouver, British Columbia's City Council from 2008 to 2018. She was first elected in 2002 to the Vancouver School Board as a Green Party candidate.Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

to provide a scholarship award to women entering the School of Interactive Arts and Technology. * 2017: the award was provided t
Canada Learning Code
supporting learning and development for school-age girls 8-13. * 2018: a generous donation was made t
Make-A-Wish®
British Columbia & Yukon, a chapter part of the largest wish-granting organization in the world, making dreams and wishes come true for more than 450,000 children since 1980. *2020: XDS partnered with UK-based charity
SpecialEffect
which uses technology ranging from modified joypads to eye-control, to allow players with physical disabilities to play video games. *2021: a playground was built in Nyarutovu school Mukingo, Rwanda, through a partnership with Th
Power of Play
accessible to over 16,000 children in its expected lifespan.

Industry Reports

XDS publishes an annual report on the state of external development for the video game industry: * 2016 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019
20202021

References

{{reflist

External links

Official websiteXDS LinkedIn Page

XDS YouTube

XDS Spark Website

XDS Spark Linkedin

XDS Spark YouTube
Video game conferences Video game industry