During the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about increased video gaming due to lockdowns were prevalent. The DORC’s new groundbreaking study, which scrutinized 251 billion hours of gameplay, reveals a narrative that defies expectations. Unexpected Findings in Gaming Habits While it was speculated that lockdown measures could spike gaming addiction, our comprehensive analysis…
Research in esports has really hit the ground running in the past decade. In parallel with the rise in popularity of esports worldwide, research covering a wide variety of fields from law, physiology, health, marketing, strategy, team behaviour, and more, has emerged. Professional esports teams can now have their own groups of researchers analysing data,…
The impact today on how games are developed, maintained and generate revenue, is enormous. But game data can do more, and we are just now seeing the emergence of a 6th wave of game data, which seeks to push the use of behavioural data beyond the game, employing data to support creators, inform businesses and…
Yesterday the UK government released its new Video Game Research Framework. The framework establishes a structure that guides games research and development and presents exemplary research practices, and it is important to everyone in games because it represents the first time that policy makers, industry and independent researchers (academics) in a key games market (the…
Esports analytics just got a major boost with the Time to Die 2 framework, predicting player deaths in DOTA 2. Esports has rapidly become a popular form of entertainment, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch professional players compete in various video games. However, broadcasting esports matches comes with unique challenges, particularly when it…
What do you find when you look at billions of dollars of in-app purchases? Certainly more nuance, diversity and variation than than “minnows” and “whales”. New megastudy covering almost 3000 titles shows how we spend money in mobile games, showcasing the incredible diversity in ways that games monetize. While most games earn from a few…
These days most game companies adopt some form of analytics: a process whereby data is collected on how well the game performs as well as how players behave within it. These data are processed and analyzed, and results serve to inform decision making and business processes across companies. Game Analytics is what allows major commercial…
Games live and die commercially on the player experience. Games User Research is collectively the way we optimise the quality of that user experience in games, working with all aspects of a game from the mechanics and interface, visuals and art, interaction and progression, making sure every element works in concert and supports the game…
In modern game development, it is crucial that we can place our players into sets of groups, where everyone in those groups shares specific traits. Without being able to do this, our ability to understand who the players are, and how they play our games, is hampered. The ability to profile the players is important…
Esports describes situations where digital (video) games are played competitively. It is a rapidly growing subsection of the games industry and associated culture, which has evolved from a niche segment into a mainstream global phenomenon. In 2017, over 388 million people worldwide played or watched esports, and the number of esports fans is projected to…
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