Games Industry Law Summit – Deadlines, Headlines & Shirts

To start with an off topic rant (you can skip to the next section for al the practical info ⬇️), this weekend a group of us debated on how naïve the international games industry still is, compared to the international bodies like the WHO, or the businesses like Apple and Meta – or the tobacco industry.

As a thought experiment, we wondered how WHO would have responded to the loot box drama from a few years back:

(1) Rename it.

In 2019/2022, when SARS2 got identified, WHO didn’t like that “S” stood for “severe” – and renamed it to COVID-19.

We, then, should rename loot boxes to something like Joytech 2.0. “Loot” belongs to casinos at worst, or rogue-likes games at best, while “joy” and “tech” are at the forefront of economic growth, and “2.0” sounds like there is some progress being made / that it’s been around forever (those football stickers!).

(2) Marginalise it.

When the South African scientists identified Omicron in Guateng, very few people said “good job, great labs!” – rather, the world was quick to associate the new VOC with the region that sequenced it first.

We, then, should blame a country that raised the concerns first – how about Belgium? Or Netherlands. See, this is not an industry problem, it’s “a problem that the Dutch have”. And like with Omicron, it’s “mild”, because Dutch have amazing economy and quality of life. Which goes to prove that loot boxes Joytech 2.0 has no severe outcomes.

(3) Go through the motions.

We live in the world where one division of a tobacco company works hard to get new people to start smoking, while another division markets vaping as a way to quit smoking. and everyone’s fine with it.

Similarly, despite 49 countries reporting 4.5K monkeypox cases by now, we have WHO both call an emergency meeting – and at the same time, stop short of designating this as a PHEIC.

So we could, say, have a “World Congress on Joytech”? Where we’ll discuss the concerns, issue a statement criticising the Netherlands – then announce the creation of Joytech Friends, a special technology created to teach the kids how to gamble get the most joy out of their tech.

Have we debated the issue? Certainly.

Did we come up with a solution? For sure.

Is this solution going to make the matter worse? You bet ;-).

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All of this is just to say that as the games industry matures, we’re bound to come closer and closer to crossing the invisible ethical borders – whether it’s combining the legal practice in the games industry with helping Putin’s friends to attack journalists in the British courts (it took the war to escalate the issue to the level of the Parliament), or promoting diversity and inclusivity while onboarding state funds of countries where simply being gay is a crime.

No matter how you look at this, with the global nature of our industry it is a challenge. Sometimes you will change those things… and sometimes those things will change you.

I hope that we stay true to our original values, and don’t sell our integrity for a bit of extra money (that we want only to satisfy our ambition of… making more money?). Which is why as a part of the program for 2022, we plan to focus not only on the technical side – implementation and rules – but also on the philosophy that drives some of the most successful global games companies.

You may recall 2021’s discussion of M&A, where one team in particular said that their primary belief is to only work with people who really want to work with them – and enjoy the freedom to walk away at any moment. It felt like a stronger force of gravity than what a binding agreement may provide, and this year we’d like to explore more of this.

And now, onwards to the Summit –>

If you attend our event in 2022, you should have already received a link to the questionnaire from Alma.

Two parts of this form are optional:

1️⃣ your profile for the annual Community Book

2️⃣ your preference for the main dish at the Garden Dinner (by default, the choice is vegetarian)

One part, however, is mandatory – 3️⃣ vaccination status – and if we don’t have your response by July 15, we will cancel your registration, refund the payment and offer the seat to the next person in the waitlist.

With zero COVID cases at the event in 2021, our ambition stays the same this year around (with the additional challenge of managing MPX that we don’t have here yet, but are bound to have by September – just this weekend I was at a hospital where a couple of teens turned up for testing):

🌳 outdoor venue with excellent ventilation

🌡 CO2 meters to track air quality

😷 indoor masking mandate for both event venues

💊 Safety Kit with FFP2 masks and LFT tests delivered to your room

As any large community, we include people who face various health challenges – and rather than tell them to “take care on their own”, we strive do our absolute best to keep them safe through collective compliance during the upcoming event.

We are now done with 80% of the program, and will soon start to announce the presentations that are fully confirmed on our LinkedIn page. There’s 3 groups of content –

This is where we take 1 issue and explore it from the perspective of several regions. Between 3 to 5 panelists, with more people contributing from the floor.

This is where we take one, or a group, of countries, and cover the recent developments that have the highest impact for the games industry.

This covers issues such as mental health, managing legal teams remotely, or working on a deal with another industry (a sports club or a film company).

Here’s the deep dives that we have scheduled, their moderators and some of the panelists (full list of panelists coming a bit later):

Moderated by 🇩🇪 Konni Ewald, with 🇺🇸 Jennifer Stanley and others.

Moderated by 🇩🇪 Stefan Horn, with 🇺🇸 Brendan Coffman, 🇰🇷 Brian Chung and 🇧🇷 Joyce Alves.

Moderated by 🇬🇧 Peter Lewin, with 🇩🇪 Jan-Peter Ewert and others.

Moderated by 🇩🇪 Andreas Lober, with 🇮🇹 Lorenzo Attolico, 🇫🇷 Jean-Guy de Ruffray and others.

Moderated by 🇩🇪 Tobias Schelinski, with 🇱🇹 Katya Nemova, 🇧🇷 Vanessa Pareja Lerner, 🇩🇪 Jan-Peter Ewert, 🇰🇷 Seung-Bum Choi and 🇬🇧 Patrick Rennie.

Moderated by 🇩🇪 Sebastian Schwiddessen, with 🇬🇧 Isabel Davies, 🇺🇸 Karin Pagnanelli, 🇺🇸 Marc Mayer and others.

Moderated by 🇩🇪 Carsten Schulz, with 🇱🇹 Katya Nemova and others.

Moderated by 🇨🇾 Roman Zanin, with 🇺🇸 Canon Pence, 🇨🇳 Thomas Pattloch, 🇨🇭 Alexander Schmidt, 🇷🇺 Arseny Seidov and 🇺🇦 Oleksiy Stolyarenko.

Moderated by 🇬🇧 Mike Turner, with others.

Moderated by 🇩🇪 Gregor Schmid, with 🇨🇦 Ryan Black, 🇰🇷 Brian Chung, 🇩🇪 Jan-Peter Ewert, 🇯🇵 Arata Nomoto and 🇺🇸 Karin Pagnanelli.

And here’s what’s in the regional group thus far:

🇦🇺 Michael Boughey

🇦🇹 Erik Steiner

🇧🇷 Vanessa Pareja Lerner

🇨🇱 José Manuel Muñiz Herrera

🇨🇳 Thomas Pattloch

🇰🇷 Brian Chung

🇪🇸 Andy Ramos Gil de la Haza

🇬🇧 Paul Gardner

🇺🇸 Karin Pagnanelli, 🇺🇸 Marc Mayer

6 more countries are being discussed/developed + some of the above will be grouped together for a cross-regional outlook. We’ll update once we have everyone’s OK.

Finally, in my favourite section we plan to discuss three topics:

Moderated by 🇺🇸 Sean Kane, with 🇺🇸 Simon Pulman and others.

Moderated by 🇯🇵 Matthew Datum and others.

TBC (developing)

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Two panels in particular are inviting more participants: 🙋‍♀️ WFH and 🙋‍♂️ OPEN SOURCE 2.0. If you’d like to engage, just shout!

Some of my most greatest memories from traveling to E3 in late ‘90s through Helsinki are related not so much to free beer on Finnair, but to the show’s official merchandise store. Back then, when making games was a really niche thing to do (the border control office would ask to confirm: “you do WHAT? video games, like arcades and stuff?”), returning home with a nice t-shirt that sported this year’s E3 logo felt pretty awesome.

In 2019, we made a baby step towards offering something similar, and for the first time produced our own technical running shirts for the Legal Run –

After using these for a while, we understood that we need long sleeves (for all-year running) and a colour that would be more fun.

In 2019, we designed the shirts for Legal Run II, but it never happened that year (thanks, COVID!) –

I, however, received the only existing technical print, which I used very actively, and enjoyed a lot.

Based on this, for 2022 we designed – and are about to start the manufacturing of – a limited run of this year’s shirts (it’s the same “heavy metal legal wolf” as on this year’s Super Pass hoodies) –

They are produced by a company that only does this: performance clothing, aka technical shirts, and take a few weeks to make.

To reserve one of these:

* please email Alma with your desired size(s).

* please be ready to spend €60.– (includes VAT) per shirt.

* if you attend, you can send the amount through SWIFT or pay in cash when you come here, as long as you reserve.

* if you do not attend, we’re happy to ship the shirts to you, and you can pay via SWIFT or PayPal (credit cards, etc.) – please email Alma to confirm the shipping cost.

We will have some extras to sell at the Summit, but those will be €90 – and only as long as the supplies last!

🏆🏃‍♀️👕 ORDER NOW OR REGRET FOREVER! 👕🏃‍♀️🏆

With Wilson Sonsini joining the roster of partners, we are 100% complete for this year. We’re also done with all the food ad beverage arrangements, which includes 2 national flags at the Reception Dinner – more on this in the next issue!

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