Schedule 2026
Day 1
Thursday, October 22
All times in local Finland EEST.
9:00 – 9:50 AM EEST
Badge Pickup
Complete registration to pick up your badge. Socialize with other conference attendees.
9:50 – 10:05 AM EEST
Opening Remarks
GUR SIG Steering Committee
10:10 – 10:35 AM EEST
What are we looking for?
Felicia Xie, Head of game research, Supercell
10:35 – 10:50 AM EEST
Morning Break
10:50 – 11:42 AM EEST
Did the Player Survive the Pipeline? Four Checks Before an AI-Assisted Finding Reaches the Roadmap
Pietro Guardini
Freelance Senior Games User Researcher, Stopguessing.it
11:50 – 12:15 PM EEST
Looking into the Starry Night: Two Risk Assessment Tools
Michal Mycka
Senior Lecturer, Collegium Da Vinci; Fractional Head of Insights, Well of Art; Fractional Head of User Research, Go On Board Digital
12:15 – 13:15 PM EEST
Lunch Break
13:15 – 14:05 PM EEST
The rollercoaster ride of being made redundant
Interactive Roundtable (not included in live stream pass)
Moderated by Emma Varjo
Head of UX and Design, Frends Technology
14:15 – 14:40 PM EEST
Between Metrics and Meaning: What mobile and PC/console research can learn from one another
Jennifer Klatt
Senior Product Manager at PlaytestCloud
14:45 – 15:37 PM EEST
Cracking the Beta Insight Code: How to Capture Meaningful and Representative Player Feedback
Michael Cai
President, Interpret LLC
15:37 – 15:55 PM EEST
Afternoon Break
15:55 – 16:47 PM EEST
Outnumbered but not outmatched: Lessons from scaling research in a busy studio
Gaston Robert & Tristan Dufour
Ubisoft Bordeaux
16:55 – 17:45 PM EEST
Making Player Data Work Roundtable
Roundtable moderated by Sebastian Long, Player Research
Roundtables are not streamed via the Live Stream Pass
18:15 – 21:00 PM EEST
Conference Social
Join us for an evening of socializing, food, and drinks at Next Games | a Netflix Game Studio. Conference registration is required to attend, please bring your badge. Further details will be provided to attendees via email, Discord, and in the printed program. The Next Games office is a shoe-free space. You can bring designated, clean indoor shoes or slippers, or just wear socks.
Day 2
Friday, October 23
All times in local Finland EEST.
9:00 – 9:52 AM EEST
Impact Is Bad, Actually: Rethinking Success in Games User Research
Michael Berthin
Games User Researcher, Player Research
10:00 – 10:52 AM EEST
Being Somebody – A Framework for Understanding Player Customization Motivations
Elizabeth Zelle
Sr. Manager – Research & Insights @ 2K
10:52 – 11:10 AM EEST
Morning Break
11:10 – 11:35 AM EEST
Research That Does Not Stop at Delivery: collaboration lessons from product research in the World of Warships Franchise
Nadezhda Ivanova
UX Research Team Lead, World of Warships Franchise, Wargaming
11:40 – 12:05 PM EEST
The Research Your AI Isn’t Using: Building a Repository People and Machines Can Read
Sohvi Silius
User Insights Lead at Yousician
12:05 – 13:05 PM EEST
Lunch Break
13:05 – 13:55 PM EEST
No One Is Coming to Plan Your Career. So Let’s Do It Together.
Interactive Roundtable (not included in live stream pass)
Moderated by Emma Varjo
Head of UX and Design, Frends Technology
14:05 – 14:57 PM EEST
Is it interesting, or is it useful? The experimentation mindset is rooted in good research questions
Dani Borghini and John Dickens
Tencent
15:05 – 15:30 PM EEST
What Makes a Good Battle Pass? Evidence from World of Warships Players
Dmitrii Sokolov
Senior User Researcher, Wargaming
15:30 – 15:45 PM EEST
Afternoon break
15:45 – 16:10 PM EEST
Leveling Up: From User Research to User Science
Navot Naor
UX Research lead, Overwolf
16:15 – 16:45 PM EEST
Outside Looking In: What Vendors See Across Games User Research
Panel: John Hopson, Sebastian Long (Player Research), Jack Dunne (PlaytestCloud), and Michael Cai (Interpret)
16:50 – 17:15 PM EEST
Voice is Power: Conducting User Research on a Generative Gameplay Experience
Franck Techer
Games User Researcher, UR Lab – Ubisoft Paris
17:15 – 17:30 PM EEST
Closing Remarks
Games User Research SIG Steering Committee