Building and Operating Teams with a Live Service Mentality

Building a great game is only part of the journey—structuring your team to support it live is what makes it thrive. In this session, Executive Producer Matt Lee shares actionable strategies for building production teams that think and operate with a live service mentality from day one. Attendees will learn how to cultivate a “live mindset” within their teams, maintain an “always playable” build to support iteration and accountability, and implement scalable live testing practices that validate player retention and operational readiness early in development. Drawing on real-world examples from AAA and live service titles, this talk provides practical guidance for producers, leads, and studio heads looking to future-proof their production processes. Whether you’re launching your first live title or evolving an existing one, this session delivers key insights to help teams adapt, ship, and grow with confidence.

This session explores how to successfully build a live service game by embedding a “live mentality” from day one—long before launch, and well before the first update. Rather than treating live ops as something that starts post-release, Matt shares how to structure production, workflows, and teams so that live service principles are integrated from the very beginning.

The talk covers three key pillars:

1. Cultivating a live mindset: Establishing production rhythms and team structures that support frequent iteration, responsiveness to player feedback, and a culture of adaptability.
   Always playable: Maintaining a stable, shippable build throughout development to reduce technical debt, enhance cross-team collaboration, and improve quality at launch.
2. Live testing: Moving beyond gameplay validation to simulate live service conditions—measuring retention signals, testing backend systems, and validating operational workflows early in development.
3. Matt will illustrate these concepts using real-world examples and proven frameworks drawn from his experience on AAA and live service titles. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to better align teams, improve testing, and future-proof their live production pipelines.

Attendee Takeaway

Attendees gain practical frameworks for embedding a live service mindset into production teams, including techniques for maintaining stable builds, enabling rapid iteration, and validating player retention early. The session offers real-world insights on structuring teams, workflows, and test strategies that support long-term engagement and operational excellence in live game development.