PGC Nordics Highlights: Industry Leaders Tackle IP Collabs, AI, Live Ops, and D2C Strategies in Helsinki

More is not always better. That philosophy echoed through multiple conference rooms, keynote stages, and panel discussions at Pocket Gamer Connects (PGC) Nordics, which gathered the vibrant mobile games industry in Helsinki, Finland, on October 20th and 21st. As developers, publishers, and service providers navigated an increasingly complex economic landscape, the prevailing sentiment across the two-day event pointed toward consolidation, strategic refinement, and thoughtful execution over sheer volume.

The Finnish capital provided an apt backdrop for these discussions, serving as a hub where European gaming heritage meets cutting-edge innovation. Throughout the conference, industry veterans took to the stage to address some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing mobile studios today. Four distinct voices—Katharina Schmidt, Dr. Luke Dicken, Urška Leskovar, and Ola Dokun—offered deep dives into the shifting dynamics of intellectual property collaborations, the realities of generative artificial intelligence, the psychological pitfalls of live operations, and the nuances of direct-to-consumer sales strategies.

Strategic Precision in IP Collaborations

Katharina Schmidt brought extensive business development experience from her years working on Rovio’s iconic Angry Birds portfolio to the Helsinki stage. Now consulting independently and lending her expertise to Stash, Schmidt focused her session on the intricate art of intellectual property (IP) collaborations, sharing valuable insights on contract negotiation and partnership management.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Schmidt emphasized that successful cross-promotions and brand crossovers rely heavily on foundational agreements established long before any creative assets are produced. According to Schmidt, studios entering into IP collaborations must lock down three crucial details right at the start: the exact duration of the collaboration, whether the campaign will roll out globally or remain restricted to specific geographic markets, and how the external IP will physically and functionally manifest within the host game environment.

Addressing the temporal aspect of these partnerships, Schmidt highlighted how critical timeline definitions are to the overarching project scope. "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, explaining that development cycles, marketing pushes, and player expectations shift dramatically depending on whether an event is a fleeting flash-in-the-pan or a sustained multi-week integration.

Furthermore, Schmidt issued a firm reminder regarding the legal and administrative complexities that frequently trip up development teams. Urging studios to prioritize the bureaucratic groundwork, she stressed the importance of ironclad agreements. "Agree on IP usage rights and approvals early," she advised the audience. "Clarity is key." Without clear boundaries concerning brand guidelines, asset usage, and sign-off hierarchies, even the most promising crossover concepts risk descending into costly delays and strained partner relations.

Navigating the Generative AI Hype Cycle

The conversation surrounding artificial intelligence took a decidedly pragmatic turn during a session led by Dr. Luke Dicken. As the founder of LuDic AI and the former head of AI at Take-Two Interactive, Dicken brought a wealth of high-level perspective to a topic that has dominated industry discourse for the past four years. Rather than leaning into uncritical enthusiasm or outright dismissal, Dicken warned against two dangerous extremes: writing off generative AI technology entirely, or treating a single isolated success story as definitive proof that the entire paradigm of game development has fundamentally changed.

Dicken articulated his expectation that the vast majority of today’s trendy AI tools will inevitably evolve, shift, or disappear entirely as the technology matures. While acknowledging the pressure on studios to stay abreast of every rapid-fire technological breakthrough, he argued that companies will reap far greater rewards by concentrating their efforts strictly on areas where artificial intelligence provides genuine, measurable value rather than chasing superficial trends.

To illustrate practical implementation, Dicken pointed to contextual recaps as a prime example. In this scenario, a large language model (LLM) assists returning players by synthesizing their recent history and reminding them precisely where they left off in a sprawling game narrative, thereby reducing friction and improving retention.

Beyond technical applications, Dicken offered a candid critique of the corporate motivations driving the AI narrative, suggesting that many operational grievances commonly blamed on the technology actually stem from underlying commercial choices. "Many of the problems blamed on AI come down to business decisions, with companies looking to cut corners and save money," he stated.

In a conversation with PocketGamer.biz ahead of the Helsinki event, Dicken expanded on his skepticism regarding productivity metrics, cutting through industry buzzwords with a stark observation: "People that are chasing the productivity conversation are just running on a treadmill."

Rethinking Live Ops and Player Attention

Shifting focus from technological integration to player psychology, Urška Leskovar, senior lead product manager at Outfit7, tackled a widespread reflex within the mobile games industry: the urge to deploy more content whenever player engagement figures begin to dip. Drawing on her extensive years of experience managing a diverse portfolio of live mobile titles, Leskovar argued that this knee-jerk reaction frequently addresses a symptom rather than the root cause of player fatigue.

As live-service games mature over years of operation, they inevitably accumulate layers upon layers of intricate systems, competing features, and overlapping promotional events. According to Leskovar, this accumulation creates a cluttered digital landscape where individual events actively compete against one another for the player’s limited attention, ultimately making high-quality content much harder for users to discover and appreciate. While many established games suffer from no shortage of things for players to do, they often fail to communicate why those activities deserve the player’s precious time.

Leskovar returned to a central theme throughout her presentation: simply adding more content into a game does not automatically equate to adding value. Before development teams invest time and resources into building yet another new feature or event, they should pause to critically evaluate what tangible benefit it brings to the ecosystem as a whole.

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz prior to PGC Nordics, Leskovar encapsulated her core philosophy with a direct warning against compulsive content inflation. When engagement dips, the answer is rarely to pile on more chores for the user. "Players don’t need more to do," she stated. "They need a reason to care."

Developing a True Direct-to-Consumer Strategy

The evolution of commercial distribution models formed the core of Ola Dokun’s contributions in Helsinki. As the VP of strategic insights and market intelligence at Xsolla, Dokun participated in a dedicated panel before hosting a solo talk dissecting the burgeoning direct-to-consumer (D2C) movement within the mobile games sector.

Dokun immediately challenged a common misconception held by many independent developers and mid-sized publishers venturing outside traditional app stores. "Having a webshop is not the same as having a D2C strategy," she asserted, emphasizing that launching an external storefront requires a holistic approach to audience retention, payment infrastructure, and community management rather than merely setting up a secondary checkout page.

Providing essential industry context, Dokun traced the historical trajectory that led mobile publishers to seriously explore direct-to-consumer avenues. She pointed to roughly fifteen years of mounting friction and financial pressure surrounding platform commission fees, alongside watershed moments like Epic Games introducing direct purchasing mechanisms into Fortnite, which fundamentally shifted industry expectations regarding alternative distribution channels.

With platform fees, regulatory scrutiny, and marketplace policies remaining in a state of constant flux, Dokun urged mobile studios to build systemic flexibility into their business plans. Rather than optimizing for the commercial realities of the present moment, developers must future-proof their commercial setups. "Don’t build your D2C strategy around just today," she advised. "Build it around the ability to change paths when the economics change."

As PGC Nordics concluded its two-day run in Finland, the conversations in Helsinki underscored an industry in transition—one moving past the rush of indiscriminate expansion and embracing deliberate, strategic maturity. For industry professionals who missed out on the insights shared in the Nordics, the Pocket Gamer Connects roadshow continues its global schedule next in the Middle East, with PGC Jordan set to take place in Amman on November 7th and 8th. The upcoming event promises further panel discussions, high-level talks, and networking opportunities for the international games community.