With the game industry in a state of change, Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing, Walt Disney Interactive Media Group discusses the online gaming space.
With such low price points and such high levels of competition, it can be tough to keep players engaged and playing your digital titles. How important is the use of analytics in keeping players engaged and spending money?
Analytics and metrics are extremely important. It’s getting a lot of attention now but it’s always been important. In the realm of games as a service it’s crucial. But even in past with games that were more singular experiences, that whole process of satisfying the consumer and listening to what they want has always been debated in games and entertainment overall. Games as a service need to have the numbers around consumers preferences, as you’re serving up content the same as Amazon, Ebay or any live service game.
Cross-platform has been a buzz word for a while now, how important is it to provide a good cross-platform experience for your players and what challenges are thrown up in the process?
We release products on multiple platforms where it makes sense and we will capitalize on it. Cross-platform is not a necessity in its own right. It depends on the type of product. We look at this from a consumer guest point-of-view. Our guests are interacting on multiple platforms, sometimes in the same space at the same time. Whether or not it needs to be cross-platform is an individual platform decision. I’d put that need underneath fun, solid core game mechanics, great IP, great story telling, and interesting characters. Having a great product is first and foremost and then cross-platform comes after.
What are the key platforms developers and publishers should be creating for?
I wouldn’t look at this from the lens of the devices themselves, but consumer preferences. Consumers interact with multiple devices for different reasons, and sometimes for the same reasons but for different needs like work, school, vacation, and travel. It’s about extending these experiences we have onto the right platforms from a consumer perspective. It’s more about how can we satisfy their needs on various platforms within their lifestyle. We have a particular focus these days on mobile because there are a billion smartphones out there and a whole lot of our guests using those devices. We’re looking at the experience first and then putting them on the right platform.
