Main Day 1 - Tuesday 9th September

Morning Plenary Sessions

8:00 am - 8:45 am Registration & Breakfast

8:45 am - 9:00 am Chair Opening Remarks


9:00 am - 9:30 am Morning Plenary Panel Discussion – Accelerating Content Creation: Quantity & Quality Control in Live Service Games

Patrick Moran - Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, Look North World
Agnes Pinter - Senior Director Production, Product Madness
Viktor Stankov - Production Director, Gameloft

In the fast-paced world of live service gaming, getting fresh, engaging content to players is essential for retaining their attention, but how can studios maintain top-notch quality under pressure? This session will explore the essential nature of understanding your game’s intrinsic player motivation, strategies for engaging with and implementing player feedback, and the importance of having a scalable and agile game design and technical infrastructure. Learn more about:

  • Balancing the quantity of content output, with designing a game that caters to a variety of player abilities.
  • Navigating high-volume output and enhancing player experience by tailoring content for diverse skill levels and playstyles.
  • Optimising your studio’s technical infrastructure and team’s expertise to improve observability, the integration of player feedback, and reduce downtime and errors.
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Patrick Moran

Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder
Look North World

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Agnes Pinter

Senior Director Production
Product Madness

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Viktor Stankov

Production Director
Gameloft

9:30 am - 10:00 am Morning Plenary Keynote – Hidden Gems: How to Increase Player-Spend

Liam Wiltshire - Head of Payments & Compliance, Tebex

Player monetization sits at the cornerstone of your game’s sustainability - a must-have for the long-term success of live service games. Yet studios are unintentionally leaving millions on the table by overlooking critical levers that can drive higher player spend and revenue growth without damaging trust or retention.

 

In this data-driven keynote, Liam Wiltshire, Head of Payments at Tebex, draws on 12+ years of experience, supporting over $1 billion USD in transactions for studios like Rockstar Games, Studio Wildcard, and others to share proven tactics that maximize revenue while strengthening player loyalty. Don’t miss the keynote session where Liam will cover:

  • How small changes to payment methods, checkout flows, and store design can significantly boost basket size and player LTV by unlocking hidden revenue.
  • Optimizing the monetization experience across PC and mobile without resorting to "pay-to-win" models.
  • Practical frameworks for scaling Direct-to-Consumer monetization without overwhelming internal teams.
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Liam Wiltshire

Head of Payments & Compliance
Tebex

10:00 am - 10:30 am Morning Plenary Keynote – 7 Predications for AAA Live Service Games

Sergei Vasiuk - Director of LiveOps, Wargaming

This compelling keynote will dive deep into the trends, challenges, and innovations that will define AAA live service games from 2025 to 2030. Whether you're a developer, publisher, or strategist, these insights will help you stay ahead of the curve - before the industry shifts beneath your feet. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of:

  • Bold predictions backed by data and pertinent industry trends.
  • Emerging engagement and monetization models that will redefine players' experience.
  • Tech and toolset breakthroughs that will shape operational excellence.
  • Strategic insights for navigating an evolving market.
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Sergei Vasiuk

Director of LiveOps
Wargaming

10:30 am - 11:00 am Morning Coffee Break

Morning Stream Sessions

Stream A – Game Dev’: Game Design, Game Development, & Performance Optimisation

11:00 am - 11:30 am Fireside Chat – Designing for Engagement: Balancing Design, Player Segmentation, and Seasonal Themes
Michael How - Expert Level Designer, Sledghammer Games

This fireside chat will elaborate on how studios can achieve great live ops success in-part by aligning new game seasons and themes, with fresh level design concepts. This conversation will also explore the importance of:

  • Level design strategies and methodologies that contribute to the success of live service games
  • Organising and supporting your teams to give them the best chance of success delivering live season content
  • Leveraging analytics to and creating content for a diverse player base


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Michael How

Expert Level Designer
Sledghammer Games

Stream A – Game Dev’: Game Design, Game Development, & Performance Optimisation

11:35 am - 12:05 pm Panel Discussion – The Art of Live Games: Leveraging Technology to Create an Ever-Evolving Visual Identity
Rachele Doimo - Art Director, Square Enix
Alex Perkins - Art and Technical Art Director, Avalanche Studios - Liverpool
Prashant Patil - Art Director, Look North World

Creating a distinct and consistent visual identity is essential for a successful LiveOps game. Panellists will outline their best practice and strategies for establishing a memorable visual art identity, maintaining aesthetic consistency, and achieving clarity that satisfies players by:

  • Establishing a visual hierarchy to enhance the player experience and visual satisfaction.
  • Utilising automated tools and AI to streamline content production, while making the most of your talented team and managing player feedback.
  • Managing budgets effectively to deliver quality visuals without compromising on impact.
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Rachele Doimo

Art Director
Square Enix

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Alex Perkins

Art and Technical Art Director
Avalanche Studios - Liverpool

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Prashant Patil

Art Director
Look North World

Stream A – Game Dev’: Game Design, Game Development, & Performance Optimisation

12:10 pm - 12:40 pm Panel Discussion – Automating Localisation at Scale: Leveraging Technology for LiveOps Success
Tamara Tirjak - Head of Localisation, Frontier Developments
Ewa Dacko - Localization Team Lead, Ten Square Games

In the fast-paced world of LiveOps, localisation must keep up with constant content updates and evolving cultural trends. This session will explore a variety of ways studios can successfully integrated technological automation into their localisation workflow, simultaneously improving efficiency, maintaining quality, and engaging players while also navigating the legal risks of automation by:

  • Implementing technology-driven localisation tools such, as machine translation and AI, to streamline content updates and reduce manual workload.
  • Mitigating legal and technical risks associated with automated workflows.
  • Balancing automation with quality control in LiveOps localisation.
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Tamara Tirjak

Head of Localisation
Frontier Developments

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Ewa Dacko

Localization Team Lead
Ten Square Games

Stream A – Game Dev’: Game Design, Game Development, & Performance Optimisation

12:45 pm - 1:15 pm Available for Sponsor Partner

Stream B – Game Operations: Studio, Acquisition, Engagement, & Monetisation

11:00 am - 11:30 am Presentation – Evolving LiveOps Strategy: Lessons from a Leading Studio's Journey
Matthieu Burleraux - Senior Director, Puzzle Games, Rovio Entertainment

In this session, we'll explore how a well-established studio with a globally recognised IP has evolved its live ops strategy over time, adjusted to a growing player base, and adapted to changing player expectations. Drawing from a use case of live ops evolution, we'll touch on:

  • Outlining steps studios can take to successfully evolve live ops strategy.
  • Expanding live ops games onto other platforms and adapting to cross-platform challenges.
  • Catering to a variety of skill levels as the player base grows.
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Matthieu Burleraux

Senior Director, Puzzle Games
Rovio Entertainment

Stream B – Game Operations: Studio, Acquisition, Engagement, & Monetisation

11:35 am - 12:05 pm Presentation – Navigating the Divide: Managing Long Running In-House and Third-Party IP
Dimo Dimov - Vice President Live Games, Gameloft

This session will delve into the critical differences between moving live ops games involving in-house IPs versus third-party IPs, into a self-sustaining model. We’ll examine the unique challenges, such as:

  • Evaluating the distinct challenges and opportunities when handling in-house and third-party IPs.
  • Implementing effective strategies to maintain quality and consistency across self-sustained games.
  • Maintaining third-party stakeholder expectations during the shift.
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Dimo Dimov

Vice President Live Games
Gameloft

Stream B – Game Operations: Studio, Acquisition, Engagement, & Monetisation

12:10 pm - 12:40 pm Presentation – Collaborate or Not to Collaborate?: The Role and Fate of IPs & Celebrities in Mobile Gaming
Natallia Pershyts - Publishing Product Director - World of Tanks Blitz, Wargaming

In this presentation, Wargaming’s Publishing Product Director on World of Tanks Blitz, Natallia Pershyts, will detail how their team have strategically embedded IP partnerships and collaborations across multiple aspects of a game, balanced creative ambition with financial viability, and measured success beyond initial hype. Gain a deeper understanding of:

  • Integrating IP collaborations holistically to enhance gameplay, marketing, and monetisation.
  • Evaluating partnership potential by aligning brand synergy with long-term player engagement.
  • Mitigating costs and risks by assessing real impact versus surface-level appeal.


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Natallia Pershyts

Publishing Product Director - World of Tanks Blitz
Wargaming

Stream B – Game Operations: Studio, Acquisition, Engagement, & Monetisation

12:45 pm - 1:15 pm Available for Sponsor Partner

Session to be announced

Lunch

1:15 pm - 2:15 pm Lunch

Afternoon Stream Sessions

Stream A – Game Dev’: Game Design, Game Development, & Performance Optimisation

2:15 pm - 2:45 pm Presentation – From Data to Devotion: Leveraging Data to Improve Product and Fuel Player Engagement

Get an inside look at how putting data at the heart of every product decision will elevate your live service game. In this session, data experts will share quantifiable take-aways that outline their top-tier results achieved by:

  • Embedding data into decision-making to meaningfully influence product direction and player satisfaction.
  • Applying clustering techniques such as K-means to uncover actionable engagement patterns.
  • Demonstrating measurable impact by aligning data-driven insights with successful product outcomes.

Stream A – Game Dev’: Game Design, Game Development, & Performance Optimisation

2:50 pm - 3:20 pm Available for Sponsor Partner


Stream A – Game Dev’: Game Design, Game Development, & Performance Optimisation

3:25 pm - 3:55 pm Presentation – Balancing Game Economies: Designing Systems That Keep Players Engaged and Thriving
Mykola Akulov - Principal Lead Monetization Designer, Outfit7

Creating a robust game system and economy is an essential part of operating live games. In this Talking Tom case study, Mykola Akulov, will not only dive into how to design a balanced resource flow and economy that enhances the player experience and maximises monetisation, but he will also outline actionable steps to take if your initial system design doesn’t deliver the desired results. Gain a deeper understanding of:

  • Designing a seamless resource flow that supports both progression and monetisation.
  • Balancing in-game currencies and rewards to maintain player satisfaction and retention.
  • Adapting and refining your game’s economy if initial designs doesn’t to meet expectations.
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Mykola Akulov

Principal Lead Monetization Designer
Outfit7

Stream B – Game Operations: Acquisition, Engagement, & Monetisation

2:15 pm - 2:45 pm Presentation – From Clicks to Coins: Webshop Strategy in the Post-Epic Era
Dave Mata - Head of Product, Maglev Industries

The monetisation landscape has been fundamentally disrupted by recent changes in the Epic v. Apple case, opening the floodgates for direct-to-player strategies around webshops. This session, led by Dave Mata, starts from his years of webshop experience and jumps to now, unpacking what worked, what is working, and what's next in this quickly shifting environment, such as:

  • Development of the smart webshop
  • Mitigating liability and risk through Merchant of Record partnerships
  • Leveraging Agentic AI to hypersegment and scale dynamic revenue-generating storefronts
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Dave Mata

Head of Product
Maglev Industries

Stream B – Game Operations: Acquisition, Engagement, & Monetisation

2:50 pm - 3:20 pm Available for Sponsor Partner



Stream B – Game Operations: Acquisition, Engagement, & Monetisation

3:25 pm - 3:55 pm Presentation – To the GWENTfinity and Beyond: How CD PROJEKT RED Put GWENT On the Path of Sustainability with Players' Needs in Mind
Vladimir Tortsov - Director of Live Ops, CD PROJEKT RED

Not every live service game can run forever, but knowing when and how to transition from active development to sustained support is critical for long-term success. This session will explore how CD PROJEKT RED successfully made such a switch for its popular live service card battler by involving players in the process:

  • Identifying the right time to transition a game to a self-sustaining model or phase it out.
  • Optimising monetisation for a self-sustaining model while keeping players engaged.
  • Aligning development, LiveOps, and business strategy to provide players with game management tools.


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Vladimir Tortsov

Director of Live Ops
CD PROJEKT RED

Afternoon Coffee Break

3:55 pm - 4:25 pm Afternoon Coffee Break

Afternoon Plenary Sessions

4:25 pm - 4:55 pm Afternoon Plenary Keynote – Slot Reserved for Sponsor Partner

Session to be announced

4:55 pm - 5:25 pm Afternoon Plenary Keynote – Mastering the Live Ecosystem: Designing Games for Long-Term Engagement

Matthew Laurence - Engagement Director, Avalanche Studios Group

Creating a truly engaging live game requires more than just strong gameplay—it’s about crafting an evolving ecosystem of systems, community, and brand identity that players want to return to. Many live games fail because they overlook one key reality: players always have alternatives, and sustaining loyalty demands constant innovation. This session will break down the essential elements of best-in-class live game design, from day-one execution to ongoing adaptation, ensuring your game thrives in an ultra-competitive market by:

  • Creating a live game that takes long-term systems design, unique selling points, community support, and brand identity into account.
  • Balancing design and business expectations with an understanding of player loyalty and for steady continued growth.
  • Maintaining best-in-class design throughout the live game life cycle, while also identifying challenges and pre-emptively tackling them along the way.
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Matthew Laurence

Engagement Director
Avalanche Studios Group

In a landscape that relies on player engagement, the importance of the metagame has never been more critical. This session explores how a well-designed meta layer enhances both gameplay and monetisation, while also fostering community. Our experts will dive into strategies such as:

  • Designing metagame strategies that resonate with production and product teams.
  • Leveraging in-game events and in-app purchases to create new revenue streams and strengthen community loyalty.
  • Identifying ways to best assess the market and create a product that both entices new players and caters to the title’s current community.
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Zorbey Canturk

Associate Product Director
King

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Francesca Passoni

Product Marketing Manager
Paradox Interactive

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Oliver Wauters

Lead Game Designer
Glowmade

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Maurício Juliano dos Santos

Game Designer
Kolibri Games

5:55 pm - 6:00 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks & End of Conference Day 1

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Evening Networking Drinks Reception