Stew Chisam

President of Hi-Rez Ventures and CEO of RallyHere

Stew Chisam is a CEO, entrepreneur, and early pioneer of the SaaS and GaaS sectors, with over 25 years of experience in video game and software development. In 2023, he co-founded RallyHere, a fully integrated platform for operating live-service games, with a mission to democratize the landscape of the live-service games sector. He is also the President of Hi-Rez Ventures, formerly Hi-Rez Studios, a global leader in online interactive entertainment with teams in Atlanta, Brighton, and Seattle. He joined Hi-Rez in 2008 and became the President in 2014, scaling the company from 75 to 450 employees and from one major game on one platform to multiple games across multiple platforms, including PC, Xbox, PS4, Switch, and Mobile. Some of his successful titles include SMITE, Rogue Company, and Paladins, which have collectively served over 200 million gamers worldwide. He is passionate about working with world-class creators on immersive, engaging, and accessible games that appeal to a diverse global audience.

Main Day 1 - Tuesday 10th September

11:10 AM PRESENTATION: Launch Day is Only the Starting Line: Scalable infrastructure for hyper-frequent game updates across multiple platforms

In live-service games, the journey begins at launch. You may have years to develop your launch version, but post-launch, the pressure is on to deliver continuous updates within weeks, if not days. This challenge is compounded when supporting multiple platforms.


  1. Day-One Readiness for Cross-Platform Live Operations: Ensure your backend is prepared from day one to handle live operations across all platforms, ensuring stability and performance under heavy load.
  2. Designing for Configurability and Flexibility: Build game systems and content that are easily configurable and flexible, allowing for rapid adjustments and new feature integrations without extensive rework.
  3. Empowering Marketing and Publishing Teams: Provide tools that enable your marketing and publishing teams to dynamically activate events, update the in-game store, and promote new content and key messages, all without the need for a new build deployment.
  4. Efficiency in Cross-Platform Updates: Develop efficient processes and tooling for frequent updates across multiple platforms, ensuring consistency and minimizing downtime.
  5. Scalability and Flexibility: Design your systems to be both scalable and flexible, so they can grow and adapt with your game's success without compromising performance or player experience.

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Stew.

Download The Latest Agenda