The top 5 sessions you can’t miss at PG Connects Nordics

• PG Connects Nordics takes place this October 20th and 21st
• The schedule overview is now live
• Tickets are available now with Mid Term prices starting at just €198

We’re less than a month away from heading back to our home from home that is Helsinki, under the new name of PG Connects Nordics for 2026.

The schedule overview is now live, bringing you 16 expert-led tracks offering the latest insight across the Nordic games market, global trends, growth strategies, AI, monetisation, developer stories, cross-platform, investment opportunities, UA and beyond. 

We’ve previously shared confirmed speakers including leaders from Supercell, Next Games, Rovio, Fingersoft, Epic Games, Meta and more. We're adding new speakers and seminars daily, but today we’re looking at five sessions that we’re particularly excited to see this October 20th and 21st.

Scaling Joy – Crafting Games for Everyone In The Room

Saara Bergström, Next Games

How do you lead a studio to build platform-defining games, with the velocity of multiple launches a year? Saara Bergström shares insights on studio leadership as Next Games pioneers living-room gaming on Netflix. Saara will explore how strong core values and a focus on player fun anchor teams through growth, to make games that bring people together. 

Whose Game Is It Anyway?

Mariina Hallikainen, Colossal Order

You have an idea for a game. You love your idea. But will anyone else? Mariina Hallikainen takes a retrospective look at how Colossal Order went from gut feelings and assumptions to evidence-based decisions when identifying the audience and market opportunity for its games.

She’ll share what the company learned along the way - how to identify who your game is really for, uncover opportunities in the market and turn, “I think people will love this” into a more grounded understanding of whether they actually will. 

Surviving the AI Hype Cycle - A Pragmatist’s View 

Dr. Luke Dicken, LuDic AI

For the past four years, there’s been an onslaught of breathless claims about the impact Generative AI would have on… well, everything. As the promise of Superintelligence ‘just round the corner’ fails to live up to its marketing, it can be easy (and dangerous) to write off the whole thing as another round of investor-facing vaporware. Equally, when one use case for these technologies proves to deliver value, it’s easy (and equally dangerous) to assume that means that the sea change is here. 

In this session, join Dr. Luke Dicken, former Head of AI for Take-Two Interactive and founder of LuDic AI, as he deconstructs the hype, talks about what works, what doesn’t and the best practices that will provide a robust strategy to ensure your studios aren’t caught out of position, whether by over-extending into such a turbulent and fast-moving space or by ignoring some of the real efficiencies to be had.

This session is a pragmatist’s view on how to best set your business up for success in one of the most fraught technology bubbles we’ve ever seen.

Environment Art and World-Building of CONTROL Resonant 

Miro Vesterinen, Remedy Entertainment

Explore some of the world-building and technical environment art workflows that enable large-scale environment creation in CONTROL Resonant. Starting with the creative foundations of world-building, Vesterinen will examine how CONTROL Resonant brings the paranatural world to the streets of Manhattan, building a fictionalised, visually twisted open world.

Through practical examples, they’ll illustrate how the identity of a location or a zone is defined and how different factions shape the environments around them. 

This session will also address practical production methods and procedurally assisted world-building. Using production examples, it explores approaches for combining handcrafted environments with procedural generation to efficiently populate large environments and locations.

Topics include modular asset design, rule-based placement systems, procedural variation and content creation, and methods for maintaining visual cohesion through reuse. Particular emphasis is placed on designing systems that remain artist-driven. 

ARC Raiders: the interview

Neil Houari, Embark Studios

And you won’t want to miss the live interview with Embark Studios’ Executive Producer, Neil Houari, as we explore the huge popularity of ARC Raiders and find out what lessons could be learned by other studios keen to create the next big hit.

About PG Connects Nordics

We're still a proud partner of Finnish Games Week and our rebranded and expanded PG Connects Nordics conference now has a wider regional remit to reflect our ever-broadening audience representing Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark.

It's where Northern Europe's developers, publishers, investors, service providers and platforms connect; where the global games industry comes to do business with the region, gain local insight, and discover the next big partnerships and opportunities.

• Over 1,500 attendees from 50 countries (70% game makers; 50% C-level execs)
• 42 hours of content across two days
• Mobile, PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, HTML5, XR, AI, and more
• Curated multitrack agenda providing market insight from 110+ speakers
• Stellar companies like Embark Studios, Supercell, Colossal Order, King, Rovio,
• Housemarque, Fingersoft, Sybo, Remedy, EA Dice, Stillfront and many more
• Curated connections with active global game investors through fringe sessions
• IGDA Chat Corner, Careers Zone, PG Party, Speaker Reception and more
• One ticket, two events – includes access to the AI Gamechangers Summit

Book now and save

We think you’ll agree that it’s exceptional value for two full days of networking, education and opportunities with tickets starting at just €198 and Mid Term prices offering savings of up to €116.