“The
games as a service era is here and it would be a big mistake to think
that simply means ongoing game updates and metrics-based iterations,”
said Dennis Fong, CEO of Raptr. “Most
publishers and developers tend to think of a robust community program
as goodwill initiatives, but this data shows that it's not just nice to
have - it impacts the success of the game directly. Developers and
publishers need to consider being player-first by design.”
The Raptr
Report looks at the actual gameplay habits of players to get a deeper
understanding of how key community activities translate into a larger,
more dedicated player base that spends more time playing games. The
report finds that publishers and developers that create key activities
for gamer communities, including mod tools, eSports events and loyalty
programs, can help attract new players and
bring back lapsed players. For instance, mods can bring in spikes of new
players up to 20 times normal rates and an ongoing community engagement
program can result in sustained monthly
growth of more than 7 percent. Vibrant community engagement also means
more gameplay activity; Raptr observes up to twice more time spent in
games with high support.
The report examines the impact of community activities for games including Portal 2, ArmA II, League of Legends, Lost Saga and Backlight: Retribution. Key findings include:
- Valve’s official mod tools for Portal 2 revitalized the player community: the mod tools and user-generated content brought in 23x new users, 11x returning players (defined by players who had lapsed by two weeks or more) and increased the average playtime per user by 36 percent
- DayZ, a popular user generated mod for ArmA II put the game on the map: the mod brought in 14x more new players, and increased reengagement of lapsed users by more than 2x within a month of release. Bohemia Interactive reported that sales for ArmA II spiked 40x within 4 months
- League of Legends by Riot Games experiences 7.6 percent user growth each month on average, in part due to frequent community engagement activities. New players join at a 10 percent rate on average after eSport event
- OG Planet’s implementation of Raptr Rewards, a loyalty program that incentivizes gamers to play more, increased weekly playtime of Lost Saga per user by 185 percent and drove more than 5x new players and 180 percent returning users to the game within one week
- Perfect World’s use of Raptr Community Platform activities for its title Blacklight: Retribution, including Raptr Rewards and a developer/community Q&A, increased daily active users (DAU) by 4x over the course of several months
Read the full report for more analysis and never-before-published data at: http://blog.raptr.com/2012/10/03/community-as-a-service/