Session Descriptions
DAY 1
Keeper of the Secret Symbols
Joby Hirschfeld
Our Journey within the Magical World of PlayStation - learn the history and meaning of the PS symbols.
THE Geometry of PLAY
SCOTT SMIGGEN
Explore various graphical Interpretations of the PlayStation Symbols and where they surface in brand & marketing experiences.
DIAMOND QUEST
Kayla Harris & Michael Ungerer
MLB The Show 25's Live Service mode, Diamond Dynasty, saw the release of a new and innovative gameplay feature mode called Diamond Quest. In "A Roadmap for How to Create and Run a Live Service Feature" San Diego Studio's Senior Systems Designer, Kayla Harris, and Senior Economy Designer, Michael Ungerer, walk through the process of taking a brand-new feature from ideation to market and continuing to support it as a live service. PlayStation studios can use Diamond Quest as an example for how to create, balance, and update live service systems. Valuable insights will be explored through the process of sustaining an active player base by focusing on the tuning and balancing of difficulty and reward systems to enhance player engagement. By highlighting best practices and lessons learned, developers can take with them ways to elevate their live services flow.
Inclusive Design Workshop
Brian P, Rohith R, Amanda L, Christina C
The inclusive design workshop is a 90 minute workshop during which SIE employees will get to participate in a co-design session. As part of the session, they will observe players with disabilities interact with PlayStation products and note down any difficulties faced by these players. They will then collaborate in groups to collect their observations and use them to co-design solutions to the issues they observed using principles of universal and inclusive design.
Crunchyroll Deep Dive
Rachael Callahan
Crunchyroll is your ultimate anime playground, streaming the hottest shows fresh from Japan, serving up merch, games, and events for fans who live and breathe anime. Learn where Crunchyroll came from, what we're doing now, and where we're going. We'll share an inside look at our global footprint, challenges we face, and why so many anime titles are wildly long these days.
CD/Illustration Process
Zeresh Aria
In tribute to the beautiful San Francisco office closing this year, this presentation will explore the illustration and design process behind its personalized artwork. I’ll also highlight some of our team’s creative work, showcasing how our ideas came to life from concept to completion.
DAY 2
Fireside Morning Chat
Asad Qizilbash
Join us for an exciting fireside chat with Asad Qizilbash, Senior Vice President of Publishing for Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group. Asad will give us a behind-the-scenes look at the incredible journey of bringing PlayStation’s iconic franchises to life beyond gaming. From the Resident Evil collaboration to the upcoming Helldivers movie, Ghost of Tsushima movie and animated series, Horizon movie, and the highly anticipated God of War TV show, get an insider’s look at how these worlds are expanding into film and television. Don’t miss this chance to hear firsthand about the creative process, partnerships, and what’s next for PlayStation storytelling.
Reaching New Audiences Through Film & TV
Anne-Marie Lee & Janet LEE
A quick look at how PlayStation Productions turns games into movies and TV series, covering the team's mission, how we collaborate with Sony Pictures and what's in the pipeline.
The Future of Location-Based Entertainment
Guy Wilday & Angela Wu
This behind the scenes will touch on the development of a reusable location-based entertainment platform called the ‘Boken Zone’ and its collaboration across various Sony entities to bring this idea to life!
The future of PS App
Joey Rabbitt
Showcasing the latest design thinking from the mobile & off-console design teams with an eye towards setting the foundation for the next 5-7 years of PlayStation App, PlayStation Portal and others.
Autism In the Workplace
J Dietrich
A personal retrospective of being a person who is autistic in the workforce, and discussion about the perks of employing neurodiverse individuals, and how you as colleagues can help make their work environment comfortable.
Playing for Insights
Daria Lanz
What happens when you turn a user research into a board game? In this talk, discover how I used board game and arcade-inspired mechanics to transform traditional research into a playful, engaging experience.
Building with Figma
Andrew Jerome
Go beyond the tips and into the trenches. In this session, Andrew walks through how Figma’s most powerful features from Auto Layout to DevMode are used in real-world workflows inside PlayStation. Using the mobile app design library as a case study, he’ll show how collaborative design translates into production-ready UI.
Unexpected Successes
Jose Cicero, Anoop Shekar, Kayla Harris & Michael Ungerer
A conversation exploring how small, strange, or scrappy projects captured players’ imaginations, and what we can learn from their success.
Insights to impact
Alex Borthwick
This session introduces PlayStation Partners Analytics, powered by Domo, a third-party business intelligence SaaS solution that enables partners to analyze their content's performance on PlayStation. It includes dashboards curated by SIE, as well as customizable reporting capabilities for users. Additionally, attendees will receive an early preview of the upcoming analytics platform redesign, featuring dashboards tailored specifically to different phases of game development.