How Do Small and Medium-Sized Game Companies Use Analytics? An Attention-Based View of Game Analytics
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How Do Small and Medium-Sized Game Companies Use Analytics? An Attention-Based View of Game Analytics Matti Mäntymäki 1 & Sami Hyrynsalmi 2 & Antti Koskenvoima 3
# The Author(s) 2019
Abstract The widespread adoption of the freemium business model together with the introduction of cost-efficient analytics tools have made the use of analytics pervasive in the game industry. While big data and analytics have drawn extensive scholarly attention, the research focusing particularly on game analytics is scant and largely descriptive. Thus, there is a need for research focusing on how game companies employ analytics. In this study, we analyze data collected through a set of in-depth interviews of small and medium-sized freemium game developers. We identify four main roles of game analytics: 1) sense-making device, 2) decisionsupport system, 3) communication tool, and 4) hygiene factor. We employ the attention-based view of the firm to discuss how these roles diverge and converge in terms of organizational attention. The study advances the research on the roles and business value of analytics in the game and software industry. Keywords Analytics . Freemium . Free-to-play . Games . Game analytics . Game business . Software business . Attention-based view . Big data
1 Introduction Video game development has grown into a major global industry and source of economic growth in a number of countries. There are approximately 2.3 billion gamers across the globe and the global games market is expected to grow from $137.9 billion in 2018 to more than $180.1 billion in 2021.1 Due to the international and highly competitive nature of the video game business, game companies have been in the forefront of adopting new technologies in their business. As a result, using the game industry as a benchmark can help to spur innovation among other businesses as well as public sector organizations. Furthermore, game-like elements have been
1
Newzoo: Games market expected to hit $180.1 billion in revenues in 2021 https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/30/newzoo-global-games-expected-to-hit180-1-billion-in-revenues-2021/
* Matti Mäntymäki [email protected] 1
Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
2
Tampere University of Technology, Pori Campus, Tampere, Finland
3
Tietokeskus Ltd., Turku, Finland
successfully implemented to a wide range of services outside the games sector. The term gamification refers to the use of video game elements outside the gaming context to improve user experience and user engagement (Deterding et al. 2011; Hamari et al. 2014). For example, gamification has been employed in smart city design to collect citizen’s requirements (Zica et al. 2018). As a result, examining the game industry can provide valuable to insights to other sectors. Against this backdrop, this study focuses on the use of big data and analytics in the games industry particularly in freemium game development. The use of big data and business analytics has become pervasive across industries (e.g. Grover and Kar 2017; Pousttchi
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