08.55

Welcome to Gamesforum Vancouver 2026

09.00

Gamesforum Unfiltered: Vancouver Edition

No recordings. No filters. No holding back. Our flagship off the record panel returns, this time making its Canadian debut. Industry leaders give their unvarnished take on the state of mobile gaming, where it's headed, and what nobody else will say out loud.

10.00

Playing Favourites: Maximising Profit Across a Portfolio of Games

Every studio with multiple live titles faces the same question: which games deserve user acquisition (UA) budget, and how much? This talk presents a portfolio-level forecasting framework that models legacy cohort decay, new install accumulation, and optimal fixed-budget UA allocation.

10.30

Attribution Is Solved. Differentiation Isn't.

AI has leveled the playing field on attribution and lower-funnel optimization: predictive LTV, automated bidding, and creative testing are now accessible to studios of any size, not just AAA. So the old edge (out-measuring the competition) isn't much of an edge anymore. What's left to differentiate on is what feeds the funnel in the first place: real qualitative insight that gives creative something distinctive to say, since AI-generated creative tends to converge toward "what's already worked."

11.30

UA Optimisation for 2027: Campaigns, Creatives & Choosing Networks

UA in 2027 is not just about spend, it is about precision. This panel breaks down how mobile gaming teams are optimising campaigns, building creative strategies that cut through and making smarter decisions on which networks actually deliver.

12.00

Scaling Global Growth with App Store Localization

Pull back the curtain on our 2026 localization framework. I’ll share the data that shows why text-only localization can actually hurt your conversion rates (CVR) by creating a disjointed experience. I will also reveal how we are now scaling this process more rapidly by removing time-intensive creative hurdles (such as caption-less video trailers) to supercharge our expansion into Swedish, Dutch, Mexican Spanish, Arabic, Danish, and beyond.

12.30

Using AI for Growth: Lessons for Organic & Paid Acquisition

AI is changing how studios approach both organic and paid acquisition, but the results are not equal across the board. This session cuts through the hype to share practical lessons on where AI is genuinely moving the needle and where it is still noise.

14.00

The Comeback: Retargeting in Mobile Gaming

Acquisition gets the headlines but retargeting is where smart teams find their edge. This fireside chat digs into the strategies, tools and targeting approaches bringing lapsed players back and making them stick.

14.30

Building to Last: Data Infrastructure for Game Growth

Too many studios build data systems for where they are, not where they are going. This panel gets into what it takes to build infrastructure that scales with your game, supports smarter decisions across growth and monetisation, and does not fall apart the moment you need it most.

15.00

Short Term Revenue vs Long Term Retention: Making Ad Mon Work for your Game

Evaluate the balance between retention and revenue, comparing ad monetisation and IAP trends to maximise long-term player value.

16.00

Beyond the Game: Community & Discoverability in Building Mobile Ecosystems

The most successful mobile games are not just games anymore. This panel explores how studios are building communities, driving organic discoverability and creating ecosystems around their titles that keep players invested long after the install.

16.30

Your game is old. But is it healthy?

How to diagnose mature games and build a more profitable liveops product strategy. A deeper look into revenue foundations, spender replacement and audience and monetization fit.

17.00

Retention & LiveOps: Lessons from Player Engagement

Keeping players is harder than finding them. This panel unpacks the LiveOps strategies, engagement loops and retention tactics that separate games that last from games that don't.