Less Is More: Key Takeaways on IP, AI, Live Ops, and D2C Sales from PGC Nordics in Helsinki

More isn’t always better. That recurring philosophical thread echoed through multiple panel discussions and keynote sessions at Pocket Gamer Connects (PGC) Nordics, which gathered the vibrant global mobile games industry in Helsinki on October 20th and 21st. As developers, publishers, platform holders, and service providers navigated the shifting economic and technological realities of the current games market, industry veterans urged caution against excess—whether in the form of endless content updates, uncalculated AI integration, or rushed intellectual property partnerships.

The two-day conference offered a deep dive into the pressing challenges and opportunities shaping mobile gaming today. Four prominent voices at the event—Katharina Schmidt, Dr. Luke Dicken, Urška Leskovar, and Ola Dokun—highlighted critical strategies regarding intellectual property collaborations, the generative artificial intelligence hype cycle, player retention through live operations, and evolving direct-to-consumer sales models.

Katharina Schmidt on the Essentials of IP Collaborations

Intellectual property collaborations have long served as a powerful tool for mobile game developers looking to attract new users, reactivate dormant players, and generate fresh excitement within existing communities. However, according to Katharina Schmidt, successfully executing these high-stakes partnerships requires rigorous planning and precise contractual alignment from the very beginning.

Schmidt brings extensive industry experience to the table, having spent years managing business development across Rovio’s globally recognized Angry Birds portfolio, alongside coaching industry professionals on complex contract negotiations. Although she recently transitioned to Stash, she spoke at the Helsinki conference in a personal capacity to share her expert insights on navigating the legal and operational hurdles of cross-brand partnerships.

Her advice on IP collaborations centered on three crucial details that must be agreed upon by all participating parties right at the start of negotiations: the exact duration of the collaboration, its geographic scope—whether global or limited to specific regional markets—and the manner in which the intellectual property will visibly and functionally appear within the game environment.

Addressing the timeline of these partnerships, Schmidt emphasized that the duration fundamentally dictates the entire project. "Do you want to bring the collab in for a week? A month? That will change what the collab looks like on paper," she noted, highlighting how timeframes influence technical implementation, marketing campaigns, and revenue-sharing agreements.

Furthermore, Schmidt strongly stressed the importance of resolving legal and creative frameworks ahead of development. "Agree on IP usage rights and approvals early," she advised the audience of developers and executives. "Clarity is key." Without clear guidelines on asset usage, brand safety, and approval chains, studios risk costly delays, creative disputes, and strained relationships with major licensors.

Dr. Luke Dicken Shares a Pragmatic Perspective on the AI Hype Cycle

Artificial intelligence dominated technology discussions across nearly every entertainment sector over the past several years, but the mobile games industry is increasingly embracing a more sober, pragmatic evaluation of generative AI tools. Dr. Luke Dicken, founder of LuDic AI and former head of artificial intelligence at Take-Two Interactive, addressed the four-year generative AI hype cycle head-on during his session at PGC Nordics.

Dicken warned industry professionals against falling into two distinct extremes: outright writing off the technology entirely, or treating a single successful implementation as definitive proof that the entire foundation of game development has fundamentally changed. He pointed out that the rapid evolution of generative models means most of the specific tools available today will inevitably transform or become obsolete in the near future.

While acknowledging that studios feel immense pressure to keep pace with every technological advancement, Dicken argued that organizations will achieve far greater returns by focusing strictly on areas where artificial intelligence provides genuine, measurable value to the player experience or development pipeline. As a prime example of effective implementation, he highlighted contextual recaps—utilizing large language models to generate personalized summaries that remind returning players precisely where they left off in a narrative or campaign, thereby reducing friction for re-engagement.

Moreover, Dicken offered a critical perspective on industry-wide frustrations surrounding AI implementation, suggesting that many systemic problems are misattributed to the technology itself. "Many of the problems blamed on AI come down to business decisions, with companies looking to cut corners and save money," he observed. Speaking further on the relentless pursuit of workforce efficiency, he added a healthy dose of skepticism: "People that are chasing the productivity conversation are just running on a treadmill."

Outfit7’s Urška Leskovar on Rethinking Player Attention and Live Ops

Live operations are essential for the sustained health and commercial viability of modern free-to-play mobile games. However, when engagement metrics begin to dip, the default reaction across many development studios is to frantically ship more events, features, and rewards in an attempt to pull players back in. According to Urška Leskovar, senior lead product manager at Outfit7, this reflexive strategy frequently misses the underlying problem.

Leskovar has spent years managing a diverse portfolio of live mobile games, giving her a front-row seat to the lifecycle challenges of long-running digital titles. She observed that as games mature over the years, they naturally accumulate layers of complex systems and recurring mechanics. Over time, these additions begin competing directly with one another for the player’s limited attention, making genuinely high-quality content increasingly difficult to discover.

While many established games offer plenty of activities for users to complete, Leskovar argued that players often struggle to determine what actually deserves their time and emotional investment. The core issue is not a shortage of content, but rather an oversaturation of noise.

Throughout her presentation, Leskovar returned to a singular guiding principle: adding more content does not automatically equate to adding value. Before development teams invest time and resources into building something new, they should rigorously evaluate what the addition contributes to the game ecosystem as a whole. Ahead of the event, she encapsulated her philosophy for managing engagement dips: "Players don’t need more to do. They need a reason to care."

Xsolla’s Ola Dokun on Building a Sustainable D2C Strategy

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales strategies have transformed from an experimental alternative into a critical business priority for mobile game publishers seeking to diversify revenue streams and mitigate high platform commission fees. Ola Dokun, VP of strategic insights and market intelligence at Xsolla, explored this evolving landscape during a dedicated panel discussion followed by an in-depth solo talk.

Dokun cautioned studios against viewing webshops as a silver bullet, emphasizing a fundamental distinction in commercial planning. "Having a webshop is not the same as having a D2C strategy," she stated clearly.

To contextualize the current push toward direct sales, Dokun walked the audience through the historical trajectory of the mobile games market. She pointed to approximately 15 years of mounting economic pressure on platform distribution fees charged by major app marketplaces, alongside watershed moments such as Epic Games’ high-profile decision to introduce direct purchasing options into Fortnite, which fundamentally shifted industry expectations around platform gatekeeping.

With ongoing regulatory scrutiny and evolving fee structures continuing to disrupt traditional monetization models, Dokun urged studios to design flexible, long-term commercial frameworks rather than short-term fixes. "Don’t build your D2C strategy around just today," she advised. "Build it around the ability to change paths when the economics change."

Looking Ahead to Future Industry Gatherings

As the mobile games community departs Helsinki following two days of intensive knowledge sharing, networking, and debate, the conversation within the international games industry continues to move forward. For industry professionals who missed PGC Nordics, the Pocket Gamer Connects conference series prepares for its next major international stop in the Middle East. PGC Jordan is scheduled to take place in Amman on November 7th and 8th, promising further expert talks, collaborative panels, and global networking opportunities for developers and executives alike.