Big data and gaming

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February 9th, 2023

Big data and gaming

I am a self-confessed gamer, so naturally working within the Information Management and Analytics recruitment industry I am interested in how big data is changing gaming. In my initial research I was amazed to find out that the gaming industry is valued at $90 billion dollars and in 2013 more than 2 billion gamers were generating around 50 terabytes of data per day!

So, with E3 recently behind us and the run up to some exciting releases such as the newly remastered Skyrim, Battlefield 1, and No Man’s Sky, there seems to be no better time than to look at how big data is transforming the gaming industry.

Customer Experience

Every time someone plays a game, whether online or offline, on a gaming console or on a mobile, data is constantly being created. The data that is being created is forming a profile on the player, this allows the game maker or advertisers to target specific in-game advertising, knowing what you normally purchase and what you normally ignore. This system is very similar to how e-commerce works by recommending ‘suggested products’ based on what you have previously liked.

Player Satisfaction

Similar to knowing what you normally buy, the data can also tell the gaming companies what games your normally play and how you play them, whether people are finding certain levels too hard or easy. By looking at this data the companies know whether to release certain updates to the game, or if like Skyrim, when they re-release games what aspects to keep and what not to. It can also tell them what games to make in the future, similar to how Netflix are using their data to create exclusive programmes. This truly is making the game for the user!

This really is an exciting time for gaming and I want to know how far it will go. With the likes of Virtual Reality and AI coming into play what will the future of gaming hold?