Ace Attorneys Assemble! Recapping the 2025 Games Industry Law Summit
Ask any video game lawyer what the best industry conference to attend will be and you’ll probably get a few different answers. That is, unless said video game lawyer has been to the Games Industry Law Summit in Vilnius, in which case that will almost certainly be their response. This year for the tenth such Summit, Tyz Law Group was represented at GILS by yours truly, resident Storyteller Jonathan Downing, where I had the opportunity to meet and mingle with industry colleagues old and new alike, attend panels on some of the most pressing legal topics facing the games industry today, and lose all my chips playing roulette.
The People
This year, the Summit hosted over 300 attendees representing a wide swath of in-house attorneys, outside counsel, and industry experts. Over 200 studios and law firms hailing from at least 50 different countries were in attendance and comprised a range of seniority, with many long-time attendees and practitioners present with up-and-coming attorneys in the games space who participated in the annual Legal Challenge moot court competition. But what transcended all boundaries and united everyone attending was an interest in the laws we navigate and the games we love to play.
Between panels, attendees were encouraged to mix and mingle with each other over refreshments, group activities like morning runs, and Summit games for themed souvenirs (I reiterate again, do not rely on me at a roulette table). It was two full days, plus extras, of learning, networking, and camaraderie.
The Panels
This year, the Summit played host to over a dozen topical panels ranging in subject matter from compliance with new digital fairness regulations to working with influencers who can make or break a game’s release. Going into detail on any of these panels or trying to summarize the expertise displayed by the panelists would be a fool’s errand. So, to keep such foolishness to a minimum, here are but a few of the highlights and takeaways from a fraction of these panels:
In the United States, lawsuits alleging video game addiction premised on theories of products liability, negligence, and/or misrepresentation are so far not finding much success in the courts. For defendant publishers and developers, freedom of expression under the First Amendment is proving to be one of the more compelling defenses available.
Artificial intelligence continues to be a major topic for game developers and legal counsels alike. While the law is beginning to make some headway with this rapidly developing technology, issues of IP ownership and infringement remain, alongside several ethical concerns, so keeping the legal part of the conversation will be important for developing and utilizing this technology.
With video games being a global industry, it’s important to keep in mind issues of cultural sensitivity and sovereignty of their global audience. While developers definitely shouldn’t shy away from diversity in their games, it needs to be approached thoughtfully, respectfully, and—ideally—with legal support to help navigate some of the stickier cultural laws around the world.
The European Commission’s proposed Digital Fairness Act (DFA), an expansion on the EU’s digital rulebook which could have broad effects on the video game industry, has entered its public consultation phase. While there is not yet a public draft of the proposed legislation, the public consultation does give us a glimpse at regulators’ current priorities, including dark patterns and digital contracts. The public consultation period will last until October 24, 2025.
The Future
A topic of much saddened conversation this year was that this will be the final time the Games Industry Law Summit will be held in the scenic, medieval, storybook-esque Old Town of Vilnius. But while the Summit itself may be packing up and crossing a few borders over to Berlin starting next year, the gregarious spirit of Vilnius will surely follow to the next destination. As one friend and fellow attendee put it, we just have to change our prepositions: it’s not “see you in Vilnius,” but “see you at Vilnius” now.