How The Gaming Industry Uses Big Data to Shape Development

Given the continued growth of the gaming industry to reach monumental levels, it is no surprise to see business leaders begin to fully embrace the potential of big data. The gaming industry is following the lead of other businesses in seeking to maximize the trove of data that is stored during online activity. Big data also allows the video game industry to personalize their service to consumers, whether working out what type of advertisements to use or learning how best to create engagement on social media.

The video game industry’s adoption of big data will inevitably prompt some gamers to reconsider their level of data privacy, with online security more important than ever in this age of digital transformation. While these intentions to use big data may be transparent and not at all insidious, the knowledge that masses of data are being collected, stored and monitored can be disconcerting for some gamers.

Using data to create targeted in-game advertisements purely has the aim of generating more revenue for the industry. This can be achieved through cooperation with social media accounts, in which video game companies can build up a more comprehensive profile of a gamer. While this may seem troubling at face value, it may be a sacrifice that gamers have to make. If the industry can attract more money through more effective advertisements, more money can be spent on developing new products.

A more practical use of big data is to directly improve the games themselves. Companies can now use data analytics to interpret the key facts and habits of gamers, with the aim of being able to create a gaming experience that is ultimately more gratifying for players. The nature of video games lends itself perfectly to tracking player performance in order to gauge the difficulty of certain levels. This means that games can be tweaked subtly to improve the overall experience. If a review of the data reveals that players keep getting stuck at a particular point of a level, modifications can be made.