Game Republic Trends and Opportunities for 2025

Thursday 23rd January 2024

Time: 4.00pm - 6.30pm followed by networking until 7.30pm

Venue: The Guildhall, The Courtyard, The Guildhall, Coney St, York YO1 9QN

This is a Game Republic special event to start 2025, with a forecast on key trends and predictions for 2025 from Chris Dring, The Game Business and ex-GamesIndustry.biz, a talk from Federico Szalkowicz from Google about monetising games on the Google Play, a fireside chat with Meg Clarke, Senior Game Scout at Team17, a panel with Andy Kelly from Devolver, Callum Underwood from Uwu Biz, Pamina Bou from Factortech and an Expo!

All followed by drinks and networking afterwards and including a limited edition FREE gift!

Big thanks to Barclays Eagle Lab for providing the venue!

Special guest speakers include:

Elaine Dowman – Head of Games & Creative Industries, Barclays

Elaine leads Barclays’ Games & Creative Industries team, driving strategy and support for the UK and global games sectors. Recognised with a TechWomen 100 Award in 2024 for her contributions to the UK games industry, she is passionate about fostering growth, particularly for indie developers. Elaine champions initiatives like Demo Days, Expos, and Awards, providing mentoring, introductions, and opportunities to help studios thrive. She serves as a board member of IMIRT, the Irish Game Makers Association, and has previously been a non-executive board member for a game studio. Elaine is also an active fundraiser for SpecialEffect.

Pamina Bou – Investment Director at Factortech Finance

Pamina currently serves as Investment Director at Factortech Finance – a boutique investment fund offering short and long term financing to high growth game developers and support services. She has first hand experience of raising funds as Investor Relations Director for game development studios. Pamina brings a wealth of experience working on behalf of buy side funds across debt and equity strategies, and has been an active advisor to Family Offices across Europe. She is fluent in five languages and holds a BA from Oxford University and an MPhil from Cambridge University.

Federico Szalkowicz – New Business Sales Principal at Google

Federico leads a team that helps app, gaming, and web clients grow. He leads a team of Google experts dedicated to helping gaming, mobile app and web clients achieve growth through their app strategy. The team strategize, consult, and deliver top-tier digital marketing solutions (with a focus on User Acquisition Campaigns) to propel app businesses to new heights across Europe and the Middle East.

Andy Kelly – PR Manager Devolver Digital

Former journalist (Edge, Vice, PC Gamer, BBC News, Kotaku, etc.) Andy heads up PR at Devolver Digital – purveyors of fine digital entertainment wares from independent artists worldwide.

Callum Underwood – Co-Founder of IndieBI, CEO of Uwu Biz, and advisor to NetEase Games and Kepler Interactive.

Callum manages business and things for Gang Beasts, Bippinbits, and Team Terrible. Callum sold his last company, Robot Teddy, to Thunderful, after running the company for multiple years. Robot Teddy managed business related matters for Among Us, SUPERHOT, Gang Beasts, Vampire Survivors and more. Callum has experience in acquisitions, publishing, starting games companies, long-tail title management, and self publishing. Previously, Callum worked as a Scout for Raw Fury, Kowloon Nights, and Oculus. Alongside his current businesses, he is also an occasional angel investor.

Christopher Dring – Director of The Game Business and ex-Games Industry.Biz

Chris is a 17-year games media veteran specialising in video games business. He spent nine years at UK business weekly MCV, including five years as editor, before leading GamesIndustry.biz for eight years until 2025. He is the architect behind events including the Best Places To Work Awards, and provides market analysis for the BBC, The Guardian, CNN, Sky News and Video Games Chronicle, amongst others. He also writes for Doctor Who Magazine. Because Doctor Who is awesome.

Game Republic members can attend this event for free. If you're not a member of Game Republic and are interested in joining and attending our events as well as receiving other benefits, contact us here

Cheers and see you there!

Jamie Sefton

Managing Director

Game Republic

Game Republic - Trends and Opportunities for 2025