Agree IP terms early, cut through AI hype, stop overloading players: Four lessons from PGC Nordics

More isn't always better. That idea ran through several sessions at PGC Nordics, which brought the mobile games industry to Helsinki on October 20th and 21st.

Here are four highlights from Katharina Schmidt, Dr Luke Dicken, Urška Leskovar and Ola Dokun, covering IP collabs, AI, live ops and direct-to-consumer sales.

Stash's Katharina Schmidt on IP collaborations

Katharina Schmidt spent years in business development on Rovio's Angry Birds portfolio and coaches industry professionals on contract negotiation. She recently joined Stash but spoke in a personal capacity.

Her advice on IP collaborations centred on three details to agree at the start: how long the collab runs, whether it's global or limited to certain countries, and how the IP will actually appear in the game.

On length, she said: "Do you want to bring the collab in for a week? A month? That will change what the collab looks like on paper."

She also stressed getting the legal side sorted early. "Agree on IP usage rights and approvals early," she said. "Clarity is key."

Former head of AI at Take-Two Dr Luke Dicken on the AI hype cycle

Dr Luke Dicken, founder of LuDic AI and former head of AI at Take-Two Interactive, took a pragmatic look at four years of generative AI hype. He warned against two extremes: writing the technology off completely, and treating one successful use case as proof that everything has changed.

Dicken expects most of today's tools to change. Studios can try to keep up with every development, he said, but they'll get more from focusing on where AI adds real value. One example he gave was contextual recaps, where an LLM reminds returning players where they left off in a game.

He also suggested that "many of the problems blamed on AI come down to business decisions, with companies looking to cut corners and save money."

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz ahead of the event, he added a healthy dose of skepticism to the AI conversation: "People that are chasing the productivity conversation are just running on a treadmill."

Hear more from Luke in our In the Hot Seat interview here.

Outfit7's Urška Leskovar on player attention

Urška Leskovar, senior lead product manager at Outfit7, looked at what happens when engagement starts to drop in a live game. The usual response is to ship more events, features and rewards.

Leskovar has spent years managing a portfolio of live mobile games, and she thinks that response often misses the real problem. As games mature, they build up layers of systems. Events end up competing for players' attention, and good content gets harder to find. Many games have plenty for players to do, she argued, but players struggle to see what deserves their time.

She came back to one point throughout: adding more content doesn't automatically add value. Before building something new, teams should ask what it brings to the game as a whole.

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz ahead of the event, she said her advice was to stop automatically adding another event whenever engagement dips. "Players don't need more to do. They need a reason to care."

Hear more from Urška in our interview here.

Xsolla's Ola Dokun on D2C strategy

Ola Dokun, VP of strategic insights & market intelligence at Xsolla, joined a panel on direct-to-consumer sales and followed it with a solo talk on the same topic.

"Having a webshop is not the same as having a D2C strategy," she said.

Dokun walked through how the industry got here. She pointed to around 15 years of pressure on platform fees, and to Epic Games' decision to add direct purchases to Fortnite.

With fees and regulation still shifting, she urged studios to plan for change. "Don't build your D2C strategy around just today," she said. "Build it around the ability to change paths when the economics change."

Next stop: Amman

Missed PGC Nordics? Pocket Gamer Connects heads to Amman next, with PGC Jordan taking place on November 7th and 8th. Expect more talks, panels and networking with the global games industry. Grab your ticket now.