- Creative Kingdom, Global Trends, Powering Payments and Webstore Wizardry
Stay Informed
Get Industry News In Your Inbox…
Sign Up Today
Pocket Gamer Connects London 2025 is just one week away, so what better time than now to explore this two-day conference at the forefront of the games industry, set to span 31 tracks.
Taking place on January 20th and January 21st, 2025, Pocket Gamer Connects London will be packed with insightful talks, seminars and panels from industry leaders ready to discuss monetisation, growth strategies, trends, and other platforms including web, PC, console, VR and blockchain.
Between now and the event itself, we’ll be sharing just what each track will cover, plus the talented people leading the upcoming sessions.
In this article, we’ll cover day one, track one’s sessions on January 20th, which encompasses Creative Kingdom, Global Trends, Powering Payments and Webstore Wizardry.
Monday, January 20th
Creative Kingdom track
9:20 – Supercharged: Powering the Future of Video Games and Interactive Entertainment
What lies ahead for the video games industry in 2025 and beyond? Ukie’s CEO will set out his vision for the coming decade, exploring new opportunities for growth and impact via the global trends that are reshaping our industry.
9:40 – Navigating Growth: Opportunities & Challenges for the UK in 2025
- Stuart Dinsey, chairman of Curve Games
- Jon Hare, studio director of Sporty Group
- Maria Sayans, CEO of ustwo games
- Louise Conolly-Smith, head of creative, business directorate at London & Partners
- Simon Hade, CxO of Space Ape Games
The UK games industry has faced a challenging couple of years, but with general forecasts predicting a swing back to growth, how optimistic can we be going into 2025?
This panel explores the impact of the market downturn, what opportunities await the UK games industry, how cautious studios need to be, and what future trends could adapt or disrupt the games space.
Global Trends track
10:20 – It’s Morning in Mobile Games – Preparing for Success in 2025
- Eric Seufert, general partner at Heracles Capital
10:40 – Levelling Up the Measurement Game – From Clicks to Commitment
- Noam Zada, head of global business marketing at TikTok
- Shani Eichbom, global marketing director TikTok
Gaming is a hyper-competitive, ROAS-driven industry, where players navigate fragmented, non-linear journeys across multiple touchpoints. Understanding the entire player journey can transform fragmented data into actionable insights that fuel growth and retention.
11:00 – 2024 & Beyond – Opportunities & Challenges in Mobile Gaming
- Jack Barrett, team director, EMEA at Sensor Tower
Dive into Sensor Tower’s insights on the big trends impacting mobile gaming, themes that shaped 2024 and reasons to be optimistic in 2025.
11:20 – Bring Your Games to China With Unity – A Pathway for Games to Thrive in China
- Junbo Zhang, CEO of Unity China
Unveil Unity China’s proven path for global games to penetrate China’s lucrative market. Learn about tailored solutions for localisation, compliance, and monetisation, and leveraging partnerships to ensure your game enters and flourishes in this vibrant gaming ecosystem.
11:40 – How to Maximise Your Creative Win Rate
- Zach van Driel, co-founder of Miri Growth
- David Westerman, senior online marketing manager at Bytro
12:00 – Is Free-to-Play, Fair-to-Play? Regulatory Challenges for 2025 & Beyond
- Isabel Davies, senior associate (Interactive Entertainment) at Wiggin
In-app purchases? Off by default. Loot boxes? Banned. Hard currency? Harder to do.
These are some of the suggestions coming from European lawmakers as we enter the second half of the 2020s. In this session, video games lawyer Isabel Davies looks at some of the policy changes that are being proposed and how education and advocacy for the F2P sector has never been more important.
12:20 – International Collaboration – Success Comes with a Global Perspective
- Rhoda Campbell, European trade and investment sector specialist at Trade & Invest British Columbia
- Dennis Leong , COO and co-founder of Nightmarket Games
- James Hursthouse, owner of Greenstone Initiatives
- John Johnson, CEO and creative director at Phobies Holdings
The location of a studio is no longer a major factor in its success, it doesn’t define the capabilities of a team, limit creative influences or business operations and costs. A panel of veterans who have built up studios and influenced the Vancouver (British Columbia) game industry discuss the strategies, challenges, and necessity for international collaboration and a global perspective.
Powering Payments track
14:00 – Playing By New Rules – Game Development Under the Digital Markets Act
- Nick Poole, CEO of Ukie
- Stuart Dinsey, chairman of Curve Games
- Chris Meredith, regional director of Europe at Xsolla
- Charlotte Cook, global commercial director at Team17
An insightful panel discussion on the implications of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) on the video games industry. With the DMA introducing a new regulatory framework to curb anti-competitive practices, game developers face new challenges and opportunities for thriving in the European market.
14:40 – The Experts’ Guide to Direct-to-Consumer Strategies
- Maor Sason, CEO of Appcharge
- Tayber Voyer, CEO of A Thinking Ape
- George Osborn, editor at Video Games Industry Memo
- Faisal Bitar, managing director at Tamatem
The direct-to-consumer model offers significant advantages for game developers and publishers, allowing for an additional source of revenue, boosting retention and maximising LTV. But how do you make it work for you? In this panel, our experts discuss how you can get players into your web store, what returns you can expect when you start and how to start generating revenue.
Webstore Wizardry track
15:20 – From Data to Dollars – How to Crush Your Web Shop’s KPIs
- Archie Stonehill, head of product at Stash.gg
Is your web shop hitting industry benchmarks at each stage of the funnel? If not, it’s time to rethink your strategy. If so, we bet you can outperform them!
Join Archie Stonehill, head of product at Stash, as he reveals his top tips for analyzing and optimizing each stage of the player journey – from marketing to signup, conversion, and repeat purchase.
He’ll draw on real examples from top-performing studios, as well as his own experience and expertise optimizing game developers’ web shops. You’ll come away with proven strategies you can take home to attract users to the web, convert them, and keep them coming back.
15:40 – Web Store Popularity & Adoption – What Does the Data Say?
- Gil Tov Ly, chief marketing officer at Appcharge
For some game genres, web stores are no longer “the next big thing” – they’re the new standard. Yet in other genres, adoption remains low. Why is that? In this talk, we’ll dive into the data to explore web store adoption and popularity – highlighting which genres and studios are leading the charge, how widespread adoption has become, and why certain categories lag behind.
16:00 – Proven Insights on D2C Monetisation from the Frontlines of Major Mobile Publishers
- Chip Thurston, head of gaming at FastSpring
Driving D2C Revenue isn’t just about building a web shop and harvesting profit. Like any other aspect of your game, it needs to be optimized over time. In this talk Chip Thurston, former marketing and monetization leader at Scopely and SciPlay, will share surprising best practices he learned first-hand while leading D2C strategy at top publishers.
Whether you’re curious about starting D2C from scratch or squeezing more out of a mature web shop, this session will enable you to take your D2C Revenue to the next level!
16:20 – Championing Community: Building Player Connections Outside the App Stores
- Archie Stonehill, head of product at Stash.gg
- Tom Gayner, CEO of Levellr
- Craig Chapple, editor of PocketGamer.biz
- Conor McLaughlin, VP of revenue and partnerships at Aghanim
- Berkley Egenes, chief marketing and growth officer of Xsolla
The walled gardens of mobile platforms are crumbling, leading to new opportunities for developers and publishers to connect directly with their players. This panel explores strategies for building a community for your game, franchise and portfolio, how to communicate with your audience, and the benefits of a closer relationship to your players.
