Who's funding, monetising and building with AI at PGC Summit Shanghai 2026

• The day opens with AWS China and Scopely, then a funding panel breaks down how Chinese studios attract investment in 2026.
• The East Meets West track is the heart of it, from Newzoo, Habby and thatgamecompany to Stefan Lampinen on selling into Europe.
• It closes with Mattel163 and SayGames asking whether the best game still wins, before the AI Gamechangers Summit.

China is the world's largest games market and for most international studios, the hardest to read. It accounts for a over a quarter of global player spending and more than a third of the industry's growth, yet breaking in still means navigating unfamiliar platforms, partners and rules.

Pocket Gamer Connects Summit Shanghai returns on July 29th to bridge that gap - a day built for deal-making in both directions.

Here's what's worth circling in the schedule, with a word from some of our star speakers on what they've got in store.

Setting the scene: Global Trends

Steel Media CEO Chris James opens the day, before the Global Trends track sets the backdrop with sessions from AWS China and Scopely - a read on the infrastructure and scale shaping the market that everyone in the room is trying to break into or out of.

Next up is 'Under The Microscope: How Are Chinese Studios Being Funded in 2026?', where Tony Shong (IndieLight), Lirui Ding (Transcend Fund) and Chelsea Anglin (DD For Games) get specific about what local capital looks like, whether international investment is even on the table and how Chinese studios convert funding into a global push.

DD for Games' Anglin says her focus is the due diligence that decides deals: "While the pitch deck is an essential document for getting initial investment, developers shouldn't neglect the business side of gaming as well," she says.

"Investors and publishers want to minimise their risks of investing in your studio. When global partners are doing their due diligence background check on you, they'll hire someone like DD For Games to verify the studio's credibility.

"During this panel, I hope to share some of the red flags I encounter in studio business materials and the solutions studios can implement to look the most professional for their investors."

The crossing itself: East Meets West

The afternoon's East Meets West track is the heart of the bridge, and it opens with the numbers. Newzoo director of consulting Ben Porter unpacks 'How Chinese PC gaming ecosystems are reshaping global publishing', drawing on the firm's latest player and market intelligence to show why engagement, monetisation and discoverability behave so differently in China. 

He'll also delve into why, as platforms like Steam connect markets, those differences increasingly shape publishing strategy everywhere, not just regionally.

From there the dealmaking gets practical. Monte Singman of Radiance Strategic Solutions delivers a session every dealmaker should hear - 'Why Most Cross-Border Game Deals Fail (and How to Structure One That Doesn't)'.

His argument is that the failure point is rarely the market itself: "Most cross-border deals don't fail because the market is impenetrable. They fail on structure," he says.

"Companies promise big marketing spend and never deliver, so you study the track record, not the pitch. A hypercasual publisher has no business launching a hardcore triple-A title. The biggest guarantee on the table is rarely the safest."

His aim, he adds, is to "get practical about what separates a deal that survives from one that quietly falls apart, in both directions".

Kingsoft's Claire Yang follows with a candid look at 'How a mid-sized, established game company survives in a giant-dominated market' - a question that resonates well beyond China.

For Yang, China's wishlist mechanic is what gives smaller studios a shot. "Money-wise, it doesn't set us that apart," she says. "For example, Tencent has a billion, we have one million. But in exchange of time, you can still build up the numbers by a lot of community efforts."

And on scouting for the right kind of game to make that work, she says: "When I'm scouting games, I'm always looking at games and IPs that have very strong social interactions, and that there are a lot of shareable contents and shareable loot inside the game. That's what gives the opportunity for the game to thrive."

Then the traffic reverses. Stefan Lampinen (Game Advisor) lays out 'How to sell into Europe' for studios heading the other way, before another panel, 'Publishing in China: Navigating the World's Largest Games Market', brings together Svitlana Verpakhovska (MyGamez), David Pan (Habby), SJ Xue (thatgamecompany) and Adam Orth (Midwest Games) on distribution, local partners, live ops and platform access.

Where the money is made: Ad Insights and The Growth Track

Over on the Ad Insights track, Kash Ismail (MStars.ai) covers Apple Ads growth strategies for publishers eyeing China. Then we'll host the panel 'Bridging the Gap: Dissecting the East's and West's Ad Monetisation Playbooks' with Bo Mei (Stonegate Games), Eran Navon (AppHarbr) and others, digging into why the two markets monetise so differently, from rewarded ads to privacy regulation.

"I'm looking forward to sharing a practical view on what it takes for global game studios and publishers to grow in China," says MStars.ai's Ismail.

"The opportunity is clearly huge, but China is not a market where teams can simply copy their global launch approach. Player discovery, App Store search behaviour, local competition and launch readiness all work differently.

"My goal is to help publishers think more clearly about how to prepare before entering the market and how Apple Ads, local execution and smarter campaign operations can help them turn interest into measurable growth."

Stonegate Games' Mei wants to push the conversation past the mechanic. "I'm looking forward to exploring how China and Western markets have developed different monetisation playbooks, beyond ad formats or user acquisition tactics," he says.

"The discussion should also look at how monetisation connects with product design, publishing strategy, platform ecosystems, player expectations and the broader decisions developers and publishers need to make when building for different markets.

"With rewarded advertising, privacy changes and cross-border growth strategies continuing to evolve, I hope the panel can offer a practical view of what teams should be thinking about before and after launch."

AppHarbr's Eran Navon frames it from the yield side: "Eastern and Western publishers have evolved under different market dynamics, shaping distinct approaches to ad monetisation, ad quality, user expectations and regulation," he says.

"We'll unpack where each market is outperforming, which strategies are transferable, and why ad quality is now a core monetisation lever, not just a UX concern."

The aim, he adds, is to show how publishers can "protect yield, reduce bad ad experiences, strengthen demand partner trust, and build ad experiences that drive user engagement".

The Growth Track then poses the question hanging over the whole industry. 'Does the Best Game Win Anymore?', gathers Corben Liu (MyGamez), Summer Liu (SocialPeta), Charles Cecil (Revolution Software), Devin Nambiar (Mattel163) and Ekaterina Dekalenkova (SayGames) to ask whether quality alone still cuts through or whether commercial execution has become the real differentiator everywhere.

"The uncomfortable truth is that it often doesn't," says SayGames' Dekalenkova of the panel's title question. "Launching a hit game has become almost rocket science and both developers and publishers need to adapt quickly to an increasingly competitive market."

She's also coming to listen, adding that she's looking forward to "meeting developers at PGC Shanghai, seeing what teams are building, and having honest conversations about potential partnerships and the challenges they're facing today".

Mattel163's Nambiar says he's looking forward to the panel most of all. "It's a great topic," he says. "I've got a lot of interesting conversations lined up at ChinaJoy too. I think AI is a huge topic this year, both at PGC Shanghai and across China overall."

The big bet: AI Gamechangers Summit

The day closes on the theme ChinaJoy itself has adopted this year: AI. Kicking off the AI Gamechangers Summit is AI practitioner Chris Zhou, followed by a panel titled 'The AI Paradox: Creative Resistance vs. Industrial Revolution'.

The session stars Wenfeng Yang (Hat-Trick Capital) and Kartik Prabhakara (Aream & Co), offering a frank look at why triple-A purists and F2P giants are pulling in opposite directions and where the industry's "iPhone moment" might actually come from.

Hear from all these speakers and more at PGC Summit Shanghai on July 29th. Get your tickets here.