SNA in Games business

Maxime Walter

SNA Assignment

Background

The games industry is changing the method of distribution from retail to online.

Games are now generally played; online detail information can be collected at individual player level.

All play stations collect by subscribing questionnaires information about the player profile

Players buy now the games online, they download updating online, they play online, they interact with other players, they play online with other users, gaming platforms and stations allow the players to interact to each other, sending messages and sharing a lot of information.

All play stations collect by subscribing questionnaires information about the player profile

The objectives

-       Improving customer experience and

-       Increasing average spending

-       Fraud detection

-       Deliver personalised experiences

-       Deliver targeted contact

-       Improves revenues

-       Optimize game play

-       Encourage players to play longer

-       Increase community by allowing them to invite friends to join

-       Make the players purchase within the game

The Hypothesis

The SNA would be a great tool to understand which players are highly influential and act as a hub around which other players associate. SNA could provide a behavioural analytics of how people play games.

By understanding how players act, think, play, we would be able to predict detailed behaviours.

The Attributes  needed

-       Player profile (age, gender, habits, purchase power, play frequency, tastes in games…)

-       Purchasing habits/convenience

-       Numbers of  friends that play

-       Balance between non-online games/online games played

-       Forums/Websites/Social Networks dedicated to Gaming

Conclusion

It will be mandatory to get good partnerships with the main gaming stations (Sony, Xbox, Nintendo…) in order to get relevant data.

The data about the actual gaming habits is relatively easy to get,

The problem will occur about the expectations and the capacity of the players to move to a major online market. How fast will the players move to this way?

Can we get a relevant overall view when we know that the games and the customers/players are more and more diversified?