10 insights from top LiveOps leaders in 2025
Was looking over my notes from Live Service Gaming Summit NA and wanted to share some gems
→ “This game is not yours, it’s the players” – Rich Vogel
Let players lead. Cohorts, heatmaps, and behavior data, it’s about co-building with your community.
→ Nick Chapelas on monetization
Protect your runway. Don’t nuke your economy with big discounts. Players will never pay full price again after huge discounts. Use data and instinct to pace rewards.
→ Andrei Chan (Tencent) on team culture
LiveOps across regions means more than time zones. Different cultures need different communication, trust, and process rhythms. For teams and players
→ Donovan Kennedy (Jackalyptic)
Don’t just copy what’s trending. Use player types (killers, achievers, explorers, socializers) to design what your players actually find fun.
→ Time is currency
Multiple teams called this out. Players pay to save time, not to win. Monetization should feel like progress, not skipping the game.
→ Max Sloan (Treyarch) on design traps
Designing for the average = flat engagement. Runners showcase a great difficulty scaling, tailor difficulty so players hit flow and stay hooked.
→(Not sure who covered this one, lmk in the comments if you remember)
Training LLMs on internal docs and code to connect small complaint patterns. Already 65% accurate. Could seriously scale LiveOps QA.
→ Max Stewart (Riot) and Sig. Sigurdsson. Operations Leader (Scopely)
Reliability can’t just sit with infra. Every team needs to own uptime. Shared KPIs, observability, and real-time response matter.
→ Christopher Saunders (2K)
Speed is everything. When your backend is fast, so is your LiveOps. Alignment across teams lets you ship, test, and learn quicker.
→ Kaila Jarvis, Jason Dauenhauer, Donald King, Dave Mata
→ Jam City is looking to utilize social listening for insights in the near future
→ CS would have other teams take CS calls to get a feel for how players really felt
→ When community, support, and LiveOps sync, players feel heard and stay longer
bonus insight…
Gas is $2.50 in Texas and their pizzas and brews are great.
