Weve come a long way since the days of Pong. The electronic gaming industry is now valued at over 90 billion dollars. And it isnt just the major companies like Sony or Microsoft who are contributing to the industry. There are thousands of smaller developers and new designers creating games for emerging platforms, like social media or mobile devices.
The challenge facing many of these developers is trying to revolutionize and differentiate themselves from the competition in order to get a bigger piece of the pie. Smaller game designers dont have the marketing budgets or name recognition of the big companies, making it difficult to monetize their games. Despite this challenge, new designers arent at a loss. More advanced forms of analysis allow developers to gain deeper insights into what gamers are looking for and help find effective ways to optimize games for playability and monetization.
There are three typical categories for video games subscriptions: pay-to-play, free-to-play with an up-front software cost, and freemium, which grants free access to the game but has additional gated content. New developers in particular will rely on in-game advertising and freemium versions of their game. Creating a virtual economy or merchandising the game are also emerging strategies.
No matter which strategy you choose, big data analytics tools can help guide your decisions to ensure your game is profitable.
Applications of Video Game Analytics
Pay-to-Play:
If youve decided to use a traditional pay-for-play method, you will want to focus on identifying your most valuable players who are likely to continue subscribing and encourage others to join. Specific data points to look at include: time required to complete a level, interactive vs solo behavior, social network activity and the players game-specific feedback through formal and informal channels. This data can then be used to segment players to understand their distinct preferences and behaviors that can then guide game design and market-specific offers.
Mobile and Social Gaming Analytics:
The growing world of mobile and social gaming was an early adopter of big data analytics partly because these games create so much data that the developer can use. Zynga, for example, collects approximately 10 terabytes of semi-structured data on a daily basis. Zynga regularly uses the data it collects to improve customer retention and monetization. For example, data revealed that many players interacted with and purchased additional animals in the original version of Farmville. In response, the animals were made a more central feature of the game in the following version.
Specific metrics to identify when conducting gaming analysis include:
- Causes of game abandonment
- Players at risk of game abandonment
- Effective retention strategies
- Viral players
- Players propensity to purchase
- Indicators of fraudulent behavior
- Most effective content/design
No matter what the industry, or how small or big the company, smart businesses can turn information into money. Riding the big data trend is an optimal way to learn what specific monetization strategies will be the most rewarding. However, while big data offers many possibilities, it can be a real challenge to store and analyze the mountain of information. Gaming companies rely on data, but they dont want to be in the business of big data. Using a proper big data platform allows designers to understand the numbers, and implement changes and strategies based on learned insights.
Developers need to understand player behavior and use that information to optimize games, so gamers keep coming back for more. Big data will drastically improve the creation of better devices, games and experiences for users. Weve already seen companies take user information and create tailored, successful content, like Netflix and House of Cards. The same can be done for video games. As game designers follow the same path, theyll realize whats working and create more customized solutions to meet the growing needs and demands of todays gamer. Meeting these demands will result in more popular games and optimization for monetization.