The game industry's 52 problems, and one amazing ruler
A quick dispatch from the 2025 DICE Summit
LAS VEGAS - DICE is the annual summit of game industry elite—or at least the near-elite. The very top CEOs aren’t all here, but a who’s who of other gaming leaders are.
I’m walking to an interview with the head of one 4,000-person game company, and I spot the former head of Blizzard.
Down at the food court in the casino resort where DICE is held, that’s an award-winning game designer grabbing a bite.
Near an escalator, I spot Adam Boyes, former PlayStation exec, former co-CEO of Iron Galaxy, and just recently the founder of a Vivrato, a new gaming consultancy firm trying to help studios solve the challenges of game development.
Boyes is on his way to attend a roundtable but has a moment to walk-and-talk.
He hands me a shrink-wrapped box. It’s labeled: “Deck of Game Industry Challenges 2025.” He had asked industry peers to tell him what the problems were in gaming, and he put the biggest ones on 52 cards, plus two jokers.
It’s clever promotion and a perfect four-suit encapsulation of an industry under stress.
It’s not a ruler, though.
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