Game companies are not known for marketing prowess but once again, game technology leads the way. By collecting real-time data on the type of hardware people have as well as how they play the game itself, companies using this data can build much better products because those products will be very closely tied to their customer's needs. (Valve has already had surveys of hardware with their Steam platform, even making the results available immediately to respondents, but this is the first time I have seen a product that measures gameplay too.)
There is a lot of power (and value) in data about actual customers and actual customer behavior. This is exactly the kind of thing I thought Tivo would exploit in the television advertising realm to go after the soft-underbelly of Nielson. Oh well.
Product: BioWare Licenses Emergent's Metrics Element
May 17, 2006
Emergent Game Technologies has announced that BioWare Corp. has purchased a license for Emergent's Metrics Element, the company's recently launched technology for collecting, analyzing and sharing game data using an intuitive, web-based application.
BioWare will enter Emergent's Element Partners initiative, providing Emergent with valuable product insights as it applies Metrics to site-wide development efforts. Emergent is currently limiting access to Metrics to qualifying developers and publishers through this initiative.
"Metrics arms us with the sophisticated data gathering and analysis tools we always knew we needed," said Gordon Walton, co-Studio Director of BioWare's Austin, Texas studio. "Emergent has created a set of easy-to-use tools enabling us to access and share any type of information that can be measured in a game - whether we are analyzing performance or player behavior - and they fit seamlessly within our existing pipeline."
"We are excited at the opportunity to help BioWare gain greater visibility into and control over their development processes and in-game player behavior," added Larry Mellon, Emergent's System Architect and VP of Engineering. "This represents a major step toward our vision of evolving the craft of game development, and we look forward to giving developers even more new, powerful tools over the coming months."
Metrics Element
Emergent
POSTED: 9.41am PST, 05/17/06 - Simon Carless - LINK
