• Gaming Backend Platforms: Exploring how robust backend solutions enable the seamless development and delivery of new live service games.
• Architecting for Scale: Designing scalable systems to ensure stability and performance from initial launch to long-term success.
• Maintaining Stability During Player Surges: Best practices for managing unpredictable spikes in player activity while maintaining seamless gameplay.
• Cloud and Server Architecture: Leveraging cloud and server technologies to support competitive and large-scale gaming experiences.

Luis Villegas

Head of Technology, Creative, and Services - PlayStation Studios CTO
PlayStation Studio Business Group

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Doug Mellencamp

Studio Director
Bethesda Game Studios Austin

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Trapper Markelz

Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer
Beamable

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Sean Tracy

Senior Director - Tools and Tech Content
Cloud Imperium Games

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• Why This Matters – The challenges of live service game development and the importance of backend infrastructure.
• Vendor Landscape – Comparing single vs. multi-vendor approaches for hosting and development.
• The Role of a Central Engineering Platform – Standardization, automation, feature delivery, and vendor management.
• A real-world example on backend scalability.
• Lessons Learned – Common pitfalls, mistakes made, and key takeaways for future-proofing infrastructure.

Pierre Romagné

Vice President of Engineering and Platform
Ubisoft

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• Strengthening Operational Resilience and Observability: Integrating SRE practices, end-to-end observability, and robust incident response processes to enhance system reliability, automate recovery, and safeguard the player experience.
• Aligning Infrastructure and Availability Goals: Evaluating cloud, on-premises, and hybrid solutions while defining shared availability KPIs across product and central tech teams to enable data-driven decisions and cohesive live operations.
• Fostering a LiveOps Culture: Embedding resilience as a core principle, shifting organizational mindsets, and empowering cross-functional teams to prioritize reliability and operational excellence in game development and deployment.

Max Stewart

Director, Software Engineering - Live and Game Operations
Riot Games

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Sigtryggur Sigurdsson

Head of Resilience
Scopely

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• Building a culture of trust and shared success as an unlock to live service innovation
• Velocity as a fundamental attribute in live game development
• Accelerating portfolio strategy by marrying backend product development to player-facing engagement outcomes

Christopher Saunders

Head of Product
2K Technology

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The update frequency of a live service game is crucial for maintaining player engagement. Rich Vogel, who has over 20 years of experience developing online games, will present best practices for establishing a successful content release schedule post-launch for GAAS on PCs and Consoles. The following topics will be discussed:

1. It is both a game and a service - discussing infrastructure, team makeup, and best practices for transitioning from production to live operations.
2. Managing the content treadmill: What is the best approach to developing content in a live service game?
3. Designing online games is a contact sport. Learn how to filter player feedback and data analysis to provide engaging content that maintains a robust player base.

Rich Vogel

Founder & Studio Head
T-Minus Zero Entertainment

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• Who are the customers, and what do they think is fun?
• Battle Pass, love it, leave it, or evolve it?
• How do we keep an engaging narrative across a long Live Service plan?

Donovan Kennedy

Design Director
Jackalyptic Games

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Want to turn casual players into die-hard fans? In live service games, engagement goes beyond just tracking the usual metrics, it’s about understanding what truly drives your players. “Fuelling Fandom” dives into real-world strategies for tapping into player support data, community engagement, and marketing to build loyalty, retention, and long-term fandom. 

In this session, you'll learn: 

• How to make sense of audience data - going beyond stats to uncover player emotions, motivations, and behaviors that fuel engagement
• The power of VIP engagement and community insights - and how to use them to build stronger player relationships and drive sustainable revenue
• Why successful studios align marketing and player support to create exceptional player experiences that keeps them coming back 

Join player engagement experts from Keywords Studios, Jam City and Maglev Industries for a discussion packed with actionable strategies to turn players into passionate fans.

Kaila Jarvis

Global Trust and Safety Advisor
Keyword Studios

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Jason Dauenhauer

Head of VIP Services
Keywords Studios

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Donald King

Director of Customer Support
Jam City

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Dave Mata

Head of Product
Maglev Industries

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• Identify emerging trends, gaps in player experiences, and untapped niches to design live games that resonate deeply with evolving player expectations.
• Production Direction: Develop comprehensive, long-term game plans that include robust content pipelines tailored for live service games, ensuring sustainability and adaptability over time.
• Meeting Player Expectations: Align game products with evolving player desires, emphasizing continuous updates, innovation, and delivering experiences that resonate.
• Designing for Longevity: Create replayable mechanics, evolving progression systems, and monetization models that enhance, rather than disrupt, gameplay.
• Strategic Decision-Making: Utilize data-driven insights to synchronize development resources and live game management effectively, determining the best courses of action to maintain player satisfaction and game longevity.

Artem Liubutov

Vice President of Monetization
Xsolla

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Paw Larsen

Vice President of Product Management
Blizzard Entertainment

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Maya Hofree

General Manager
Supercell

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Stephen Jarrett

Senior Director of Product and Strategy
Second Dinner

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• Building and Maintaining Live Service Pipelines: Key considerations for designing and maintaining content pipelines and tools that support live service environments.
• Tooling and Asset Management: Strategies for managing assets and developing tools with a live service mindset to ensure efficient workflows.
• Stakeholder Collaboration and Impact: Understanding the roles of stakeholders in content development pipelines and their influence on the final product.
• Adapting to Remote Work Challenges: Insights and strategies for supporting effective remote work in the context of live service product development.

Adam Hafez

Project Technical Director - Tools & Pipelines
ZeniMax Online Studios

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• Integrating Operational Reporting for Live Games: Explore how data engineering and analytics teams build reporting pipelines that provide actionable insights into player behavior, game health, and live operations.
• Enhancing Decision-Making with Data-Driven Tools: Learn how advanced analytics, automation, and ML-driven insights (where applicable) can support game teams in optimizing player experiences, balancing economies, and improving retention.

André Cohen

VP of Data Platform
Stillfront

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• Brief overview of Wargaming data platform and evolution of the architecture of the 10 years.
• What robust game data infrastructure supports real-time analytics, enabling teams to respond swiftly to player behavior and optimize in-game experiences.
• The integration of player data to drive game evolution, shape content, and refine features, ensuring alignment with player needs and improving overall engagement.

Alexander Ryabov

Head of Data Services, Business Intelligence
Wargaming.net

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• How to determine whether the game can get to growth
• Identifying and tackling debt - tech debt, product debt, design debt and operational debt
• Take a hypothesis driven approach to the roadmap while maintaining an enjoyable experience for existing players

Pawan Gaargi

Chief Product Officer
Monumental

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Discover how live-service games can achieve scalable growth and long-term player retention by leveraging organic creator ecosystems. Gain actionable insights for live-ops and community teams to work collaboratively, maximizing the impact of in-game events and content updates.

• Creator Codes as a Game-Changer: Unlock a powerful channel for tracking ROI, boosting player engagement, and gathering actionable data.
• Retain and Scale Your Player Base: Engage creators across all tiers to reduce player churn and foster loyalty between content drops.
• Community Attribution: Replace guesswork with precise metrics to measure how creators drive player activity and long-term engagement

Robin Åström

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Wehype

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Being a good product manager sometimes means you have to embrace ideas that initially seem counter-intuitive or paradoxical. I'll cover several of these in this talk, including

• The reason you should plan for your ab tests to fail
• The danger of thinking with averages
• The perils of making games at a successful studio

Max Sloan

Associate Director of Product
Treyarch (Activision Blizzard)

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• Advancing the craft of community building. Considerations on how game products are competing for player ‘time’ in an entertainment ecosystem.
• Balancing community feedback with development vision and game product direction. 
• Leveraging community engagement to drive game growth and retention.

Chris Mancil

Sr. Director of Community
Scopely

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Carolyn Gudmundson

Director of Product
GGWP

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Samuel Bandeira

Lead Live Community
thatgamecompany

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• Why the opportunity is greater than ever before to scale your D2C revenue
• The need for developers to keep player trust in mind when building and scaling D2C
• Why developers should leverage engagement and community to incentivize players to purchase on web shops
• What tactics are developers using to market web shops in an environment with anti-steering policies

Chip Thurston

Head of Gaming
FastSpring

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Stephen Jarrett

Senior Director of Product and Strategy
Second Dinner

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Ivan Donik

Principal Live Operations Analyst
Kabam

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