Conference Day 2 – 9th September 2026

This panel explores how top-tier live service teams make high stakes decisions while balancing technical realities, human judgement, and the constant pressure of evolving roadmaps. Panellists will unpack how they improve upon:

• Ranking priorities when everything seems important.
• Making decisions without all the information they’d ideally like to have.
• Looking out for their team’s wellbeing to prevent bottlenecks and burn out.

Andréane Meunier

Sr. Director Production and Live Services
Sony Interactive Entertainment

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Tomasz Stanisławek

Director of Software Engineering
Huuuge Games

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Agnes Pinter

Senior Director Production
Product Madness

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Tomas Rawlings

Development Studio Leadership
STEALTH

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Speaker Session to Be Announced

Players don’t think about payments, accounts, compliance, or anti-fraud systems - but those “invisible” services determine whether the game feels smooth, trustworthy, and even playable. During this session Maksim Zaikin, the Head of Game Integration at Wargaming will share real examples from his experience running shared services across game titles like World of Tanks: what’s worth centralizing, what it breaks if you do it wrong, and the practical habits that keep platform work helping game teams instead of slowing them down. Attendees will take away:

• A clear rule of thumb for what to centralize vs keep game-specific.
• The real costs of centralization - coupling, priority conflicts, migration pain - and how to manage them.
• How these services impact player trust and revenue integrity (login, purchases, security, etc.).

Maksim Zaikin

Head of Game Integration
Wargaming

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Post-launch can be like a zombie post-apocalyptic world and only those who adapts the best can survive! In this talk Alexandre Breault, the Associate Game Director of Techland, will use real world examples to outline how you can grow your live service games by keeping a mindset focused on delivery and adaptability. He’ll explain how you can help your team grow your live game like a survivor by being:

• Resourceful: Make the best of what is at your disposition: your team, your game, your tech.
• Opportunist: Plans are great, but sometimes there are opportunity you can't foresee. Always make the most of those.
• Fast: The fastest you can make your changes, the more you benefit from them.
• Enduring: Speed is not all - as you need to keep the cadence.
• Trustworthy: No one survives alone - and trust is key within your team and with your community.
• Determined: And last - being able to go back up after a setback.

Alexandre Breault

Associate Game Director
Techland

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How does a live service world stay fresh after years of evolution? In this follow up to last year’s From Legacy to Live session, Michael Schade, CEO of ROCKFISH Games and 2,000 hour Destiny 2 veteran, takes a close look at how Renegades redefines Bungie’s universe. From the Portal overhaul and Star Wars inspired aesthetic to the new Lost Frontier extraction modes and a refreshed loot ecosystem, he explores what these bold shifts reveal about creative reinvention, community trust, and long term player engagement, supported by insights from leading Destiny 2 creators. Dive into:

• Examining how major creative changes can revitalise a long running live service world.
• Understanding how trust, transparency, and community sentiment shape successful reinvention.
• Identifying engagement strategies that keep players invested through years of ongoing evolution.

Michael Schade

CEO
ROCKFISH Games

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This session unpacks the art and science of planning content drops that keep live service players engaged without overwhelming teams or diluting the game’s identity. Panellists will explore how they determine the right volume, cadence, and type of updates that will keep players invested by:

• Assessing player behaviour and aligning content drops with realistic production capacity.
• Identifying player priorities by analysing feedback and data to understand what content resonates most.
• Transforming insights into updates by converting player needs into compelling, well timed in game experiences.

Jakub Trancik

Head of Game – Idle Miner Tyoon
Kolibri Games GmbH

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Dr. Fisher

Sr. Director of User Research
Sony Interactive Entertainment

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Tomas Rawlings

Development Studio Leadership
STEALTH

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Pavlo Poiasnyk, LiveOps Department Director at Plarium, leads an educational roundtable exploring how to construct an in-game economy entirely from scratch while keeping both player trust and commercial goals in balance. Drawing from relevant examples, Pavlo will guide attendees through:

• Identifying the right monetisation practices for your audience, project and genre.
• Knowing your player in a way that helps you understand what in-game transactions and prices won’t alienate them.
• Implementing additional key elements into a new project, necessary to build an in-game economy.
• Understanding what resource allocation and team structures are essential to support your new, sustainable economy.

Pavlo Poiasnyk

LiveOps Department Director
Plarium

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Marcin Lella works closely with Tencent's secondary studios and works with them to optimise and improve their user research strategies that directly influence smarter, safer, and more player aligned game design. By observing real players test early builds, he guides developers in identifying risks, refining in game assets, and continually adjusting features to better meet audience expectations. Through real world examples, this session gets into:

Applying user research insights to refine in game assets and align them with real player expectations.

Identifying design risks early and guiding teams through safer, more informed decision making.

Observing real player behaviour to drive continuous iteration and meaningful feature improvements.

Marcin Lella

Senior User Researcher
Tencent

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This session explores how studios can keep content feeling fresh and exciting without overwhelming players or compromising fairness, all while meeting revenue goals. The speaker will guide a discussion based on their experience monetising across a variety of platforms. Walk away with practical insights on:

• Balancing content cadence by delivering fresh updates that engage players without creating fatigue.
• Tailoring monetisation approaches by adapting strategies to the strengths and constraints of each platform.
• Navigating platform limitations by designing revenue systems that remain fair, creative, and financially viable across diverse ecosystems.

Ed Badcock, Associate Director of Player Engagement at ZeniMax Online Studios, explores what it truly takes to revitalise a ten year old game, like The Elder Scrolls Online, in a way that renews trust with existing players, whilst also ensuring initiatives are deployed to bring back lapsed players and wider audiences. He will unpack how their publishing and development teams have collaborated in an intentional way that creates a game and community that builds player trust by:

• Designing updates that deliver long-requested features from players, alongside breaking the mould to deliver new experiences that inspire existing and wider audiences alike.
• Strengthening player trust by aligning publishing and development teams around transparent, player first decision making.
• Re energising long term engagement.

Ed Badcock

Associate Director of Player Engagement
Zenimax Online Studios

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This forward looking session explores what the live service landscape may look like by 2027, highlighting the emerging trends, technologies, and player expectations that will define the next wave of successful games. The panellists will share key learnings from their experience the past year while examining how studios are:

• Anticipating future trends by understanding the shifts in player behaviour, technology, and market expectations shaping 2027.
• Differentiating in crowded spaces by developing strategies that help live service games stand out and sustain attention.
• Applying industry learnings by leveraging insights from the past year to inform stronger long term planning.

Sahana Subraya

Director of Product
Socialpoint

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Tomas Rawlings

Development Studio Leadership
STEALTH

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