United by Problems, Divided by SolutionsTracing Global Regulatory Trends

LEAD:
Vanessa P. Lerner (Dias Carneiro Advogados)

ON STAGE:
Sophie Lewis (Harbottle & Lewis)
Michael Boughey (HWLE)
Sean West (Perkins Coie)
Tracey Tang 汤擎 (AnJie Broad 安杰世泽律师事务所)
Olivier Oosterbaan (Leopold Meijnen Oosterbaan)

This cross-country panel looks at the major issues that trigger regulatory response across the world, and at the specific responses already implemented or currently discussed – which may differ, depending on the history and the political agenda of each region.

With the legislators often cross-referencing each other when introducing new regulatory tools, we zoom out for the big picture: what are the global trends that merit our focus? What can we expect to land, sooner or later, on the desk of each and every major region? And what can we learn from the markets that were the pioneers in a specific field?

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)Q&A WITH EXPERT(S)

Plaintiffs SpawnedThe Rise of Class Action Around Video Games

CO-LEADS:
Andy Ramos (Pérez-Llorca)
Teresa Michaud (Cooley)

ON STAGE:
Nadia Latti (CMS)
Inês Teixeira (DLA Piper)
Chris Stevens (Roblox)
Rohan Paramesh (Aristocrat (Product Madness))

Since the beginning of the pandemic, consumer litigation targeting video games has surged dramatically. At the same time, procedural mechanisms for “class,” “collective,” and “representative” actions have expanded well beyond the traditional common law jurisdictions of USA, UK, and Australia – taking hold across Europe, South America, and Asia.

Compounding this trend, governments in these jurisdictions are subjecting games to increasing regulatory scrutiny. Together, these converging forces place games at the epicenter of legal risk — facing potentially costly civil litigation with the capacity to affect their entire player base.

This panel will explore the geographic expansion of class action mechanisms into new jurisdictions, the substantive legal theories that have been — or are likely to be — asserted against video games, and the practical strategies that companies can implement to deter, manage, and defend against such actions.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Of Game Changers and Moving TargetsHow US Courts and Regulators have Changed the Global Game Recently

CO-LEADs:
Karin Pagnanelli (MSK)
Stacey Chuvaeva (MSK)

This session focuses on the US regulation and court decisions that affect the studios globally. We look at the developments around monetization (including the risks created by real money trading sites, and studio’s options of dealing with them); discuss the dynamics of litigation against clones (how Marc Mayer’s prediction of the US courts becoming less accessible to non-US plaintiffs has played out, and what’s happening on the platform side); update on the copyright enforcement (covering the UGC angle, among other factors); and, finally, consider the current status of the fair use.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Really Just a Number?Age Assurance in Video Games

LEAD:
Felix Hilgert (Osborne Clarke)

ON STAGE:
Emma Smizer (Frankfurt Kurnit)
Patrick Rennie (Wiggin)
Anselm Rodenhausen (Video Games Europe)
Sarah Cramer (Take-Two Interactive)
Janine Kessel (Epic Games)

In this cross-country session, we look at the current state of age assurance in video games: what exactly is understood by the term in each of the key markets, what do legislators like and regulators require, how is responsibility allocated between platforms, individual publishers and other stakeholders, which options are practically viable for studios that operate legacy games or prepare to launch new products, and how they can deal with the unavoidable side effects as they resolve the challenge of age assurance

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Sealing the LeaksCrisis Management in Games Industry

LEAD:
Pete Lewin (Wiggin)

ON STAGE:
Kostyantyn Lobov (Harbottle & Lewis)
Ryan Morrison (MGL)
Krzysztof Muciak (CD PROJEKT RED)
Jan-Peter Ewert (Valve)

Leaked trailers. Ransomed source code. Data breaches. Broken embargoes. Disgruntled ex-staff tell-alls. Leaks are a prevalent – yet under-discussed – topic within the games industry. This panel explores the topic within the broader context of crisis management: how should in-house counsel grasp these multi-dimensional problems? Which internal stakeholders and third parties do you bring in? What are the different legal and non-legal tools available? What are the considerations for pursuing the perpetrators? When do you have notification obligations to regulators or contractual partners? And how do you prioritise all of these urgent competing priorities? Perhaps most importantly, we also discuss the things that you can do to minimize the chances of leaks in the first place.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

End of Disclosure or Countdown to ExtinctionDiscovery in Conflicts

LEAD:
Tobias Schelinski (Taylor Wessing)

ON STAGE:
Ryan Tyz (Tyz Law)
Eric Ball (FENWICK)
Christine Morgan (Kilpatrick)
Meryl Koh 许君宁 (Drew & Napier)
Robert Jønsson (HortenDahl)
Boğaç Erozan (Riot Games)

Examination of evidence is a part of litigation everywhere. Different regions afford different levels of protection when sensitive information may be exposed, with the US system of discovery in the lead in terms of the reach and the risks that the parties to the trial face.

Therefore, we start our legal journey in the US where we will very briefly learn how discovery in the US works. We continue with a cross country trip involving experts from the EU, Asia and the US where we explore pre-trial and in-trial strategies regarding the exposure and disclosure of sensitive information, whether these arise during cases related to overruling of bans for cheating, in the course of players aggressively pursuing studio obligations to disclose their personal data, or as a part of a business deal that involves disclosure of confidential information.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Licensed, Unlicensed, InspiredManaging IP Across Deals, Mods, and Drift

CO-LEADS:
Ryan Black (DLAPiper)
Maya Yamazaki (Davis Wright Tremaine)

ON STAGE:
Efraín Olmedo (ALBOR)
Nick Mitchell (Hasbro)
Rik Sudra (LEGO Digital Play)
Eric Grouse (The Pokémon Company International)

This session confronts the full spectrum of licensing risk in video games, exploring complex cross-media deals and the growing grey zone where third parties (players, ecosystems, competitors and unrelated businesses) extract value from your IP, sometimes with (but particularly in games often without) your permission, discussing the strategic question of whether – and how – to tolerate it. This unmissable tour de force of a cross-regional, GC-level panel is replete with war stories, debate, hot takes, and best practices.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Out of SyncIn-Game Music, PROs, Labels & Licensing

LEAD:
Marc Mayer (MSK)

ON STAGE:
Luca Guidobaldi (ADVANT Nctm)
Gregor Schmid (Taylor Wessing)
Melissa Bortnick (Playbook1)
Yahor Yefanau (VIZOR | Strikerz | Glera)
Kuba Jankowski (CD Projekt Red)

Dealing with music has always been a complex matter for the games industry. Recently, the space got even more challenging, with legacy organizations seeking to claim a share in revenue and the arrival of new technology posing the question of copyrightability for generated music.

This cross-country session explores the issues around the authorship of original music and the reliability of statutory licenses; discusses the approach to acquisition of rights across multiple jurisdictions, the terms used in negotiations with artists, composers and labels, and the specifics of licensing for re-releases and remasters; reviews the challenges posed by PROs, the issue of ‘platform’ liability for use of music by creators and influencers, and the best practices of dealing with takedowns; it also opens the debate on the use of LLM-generated music, and where the major regions stand on this question at the moment.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Players FirstNavigating Towards Defensible Solutions

LEAD:
Xuyang Zhu (Taylor Wessing)

ON STAGE:
Brian Chung 정태현 (Kim & Chang)
Ben McMeechan (Take-Two Interactive)
Sabrina Tozzi (Roblox)
Katya Nemova (Wargaming)
Elizabeth Schweitzer (SYBO Games)

This panel explores how games studios balance decisions between player experience, regulatory demands, creative vision and the specific circumstances of ownership and leadership at their companies in order to arrive at defensible solutions that put players in the front row – to the extent that it is possible in a specific situation. We talk about what helps optimize such decisions, and why each company will likely have a different playbook.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Aiming for Global ComplianceLanguage, Priorities, Decisions

LEAD:
Ron Koo (Perkins Coie)

ON STAGE:
Felix Hilgert (Osborne Clarke)
Lydia Starostina (Playrix)
Rafal Kloczko (Epic Games)
Ewelina Jarosz-Zgoda (CD Projekt Red)
Rafael Orozco (Bandai Namco)

This session returns to a question that we first raised at the Limassol edition of the Summit: does a games studio have a chance of becoming globally compliant – or compliance is the direction of travel, rather than the destination point? And if it’s the direction of travel, then what sort of compass do you use to stay on the course?

With the counsel who represent studios of different scales and different organizational structures, we will explore hard-won lessons and best practices of identifying which areas deserve immediate attention and which can wait, translating legal risk into language that resonates with production, marketing and management teams, and making principled risk decisions when resources are limited. We will also discuss the role that law firms can play in extending a studio’s compliance reach well beyond what internal resources alone can cover.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Sociable, But Not Social MediaRegulating Connected Gameplay On Its Own Terms

LEAD:
Dr. Celia Pontin (Flux Digital Policy)

ON STAGE:
Daniel Dyball (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Chris Stevens (Roblox)

As policymakers increasingly favour age restrictions on social media, the video games industry faces a growing regulatory risk. In‑game chat, multiplayer matchmaking, and UGC are drawing scrutiny from regulators who view these features as evidence that games are simply another form of social media. Beyond communications functions, concerns once confined to social platforms – such as log‑in streaks, achievements, and feedback mechanisms – are now spilling over into fundamental questions about game design.

To prevent unwarranted and disproportionate regulation of core gameplay, the industry must help regulators understand how context shapes the function and impact of social features and engagement mechanics in games, and how these benefit players. Drawing on recent regulatory developments, this panel explores what distinguishes games from social media, how the industry can best articulate this to regulators and legislators, and what is at stake if it fails to do so.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)

Game Over?How Games Die, Scale Down, and Persist

LEAD:
Andrea Dufaure (Hogan Lovells)

ON STAGE:
Luca Guidobaldi (ADVANT Nctm)
Boğaç Erozan (Riot Games)
Neil Yang (NetEase Games)
Hajer Boujbel (Scopely)
Martyna Czapska (GOG)

Live service games rarely end in a single, clean moment. Some titles shut down entirely, disappearing as servers go offline. Others linger on, scaled down to a fraction of their former scope, sustained by smaller teams or niche audiences. A few find ways to reinvent themselves through relaunches, pivots, or even player-run servers that keep worlds alive beyond official support. This panel explores the full spectrum of what it means for a game to “end” in today’s industry.

As player expectations evolve and movements like “Stop Killing Games” gain traction, the traditional model of sunsetting is increasingly under scrutiny. What obligations do developers have when a game winds down and what happens when players take preservation into their own hands? From private servers and IP enforcement to regulatory pressure and consumer rights, this discussion will unpack the legal and operational realities behind shutdowns, scale-downs, and second lives, and explore whether a new framework for ending games is starting to take shape.

Q&A WITH THE LEAD(S)