Player Support Meetup 2023: uniting worldwide experts

September 5th, 2023 — A big day in the 5CA history books, it marked our first Player Support summit in Tel Aviv, Israel, to massive success.

5CA hosted leaders from some of Europe’s top free-to-play (F2P) mobile gaming companies for a fun, insightful, and educational look into the future of player support.

5CA’s Player Support Meetup 2023 was a day full of peer-to-peer learning and insights, roundtables, shared best practices, and discussions on customer support operations in today’s world and what’s to come.

“I had a great experience. It was a good, solid, honest, professional event—both the talks, content, and execution.”

– Ziv Kitaro
Director of Communications and BizDev, Whaleapp

The Player Support Meetup 2023 rundown

The event featured key speakers and panelists such as Mika Palevsky (Papaya), Yaniv Kaldor (CX Consultant), Ziv Kitaro (Whaleapp), Sebastian Brant (Huuuge Games), and 5CA’s own David Bos, Elliot Hollander, and Robin Harinck, covering some of the PX industry’s most buzzed-about topics — from AI to player retention.

Here’s a quick rundown of the day’s key takeaways:

The impact of player support and PX data

5CA’s Director of Business Development, Elliot Hollander, demonstrated how significantly player support data can impact bottom-line performance for F2P mobile games.

Based on a ticket analysis case study, Elliot shared how the resulting data helped customer support teams improve performance and forecast future support needs based on multiple data points.

Elevating customer support to customer experience

Our keynote speaker, tenured Customer Experience Consultant Yaniv Kaldor, shared his valuable insights on going the extra mile for players seeking support.

Drawing from his industry expertise, Kaldor provided practical and valuable tips and examples on enhancing the player journey and player-to-agent interactions.

Balancing upselling and player satisfaction

We pulled together a diverse panel of representatives from various gaming genres—such as RPG, Social Casino, and Social Skill—to discuss the delicate balance between internal engagement, player happiness, and achievable monetization goals.

Next Steps: AI and automation in player support

5CA’s Automation Director, Robin Harinck, explored the current state of AI, its challenges, and real-world applications in player support. Robin’s discussion covered how AI is shaping the future of support technology — and teased what’s to come.

Future-proofing your PX

Our future-proof panel brought together automation and player experience experts from leading F2P companies to share their experience. This panel examined how to deal with high numbers of player requests, what automation can do to help, and the possibilities AI will bring to the game.

Roundtable: How AI is shaping the new player support organization

This interactive roundtable session brought industry professionals together to discuss the state of AI in player support and its future place in the industry. Guests shared valuable insights and practical advice with their peers, encouraging each other to look ahead and think big.

Roundtable: From growth to retention and loyalty

As the gaming industry evolves, so too must player experience. Our From Growth to Retention roundtable delved into the evolving demands on player support teams.

This roundtable of player support professionals, VIP Team Leads, and PX experts notably observed the increased studio demand for player insights, leaving a vital question: what do players want from player support?

Roundtable: Tackling operational challenges — one by one

5CA’s Player Support Meetup’s final roundtable revealed player support teams’ most common operational challenges. These challenges include managing peak periods, team dynamics, quality control, and demonstrating the value of PX to management.

Participants brainstormed solutions to address these pressing issues and ended the day with actionable ideas for overcoming these challenges in the years ahead.

“The event was awesome! So many important topics to share and learn from. I can’t wait for the next one.”

– Yaniv Kaldor
Customer Experience Consultant

Player support for today — and tomorrow

Overall, 5CA’s Player Support Meetup 2023 had positive reviews from all attendees. As the gaming industry is ever-evolving, events like these serve as a compass to navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead.

We want to give an enormous shoutout to all attendees and speakers. Their knowledge, insights, and real-world experience gave us plenty to consider — as a company and passionate proponents of a player-first, future-proofed support world.

Want to learn more?

If you’re interested in any topics covered at the Player Support Meetup 2023 or want to see them in action, get in touch.