The widespread adoption of the freemium business model together with the introduction of cost-efficient analytics tools have spurred the use of big data and analytics in the game industry. While big data and analytics have drawn extensive scholarly attention, the research focusing particularly on game analytics has remained scant and largely descriptive.

To fill in this void in the extant knowledge, we have examined how game companies, particularly small and medium-sized freemium game developers, employ analytics. We have analyzed a set of in-depth interviews of game industry professionals. We have identified four main roles of game analytics: 1) sense-making device, 2) decision-support system, 3) communication tool, and 4) hygiene factor. We have employed the attention-based view of the firm as the theoretical lens to discuss how these roles diverge and converge in terms of organizational attention. Our results further the understanding of the roles and business value of analytics in the game and software industry.

You can find the full paper here.

Bibliometric information: Mäntymäki, M., Hyrynsalmi, S., & Koskenvoima, A. (2019). “How Do Small and Medium-Sized Game Companies Use Analytics? An Attention-Based View of Game Analytics.” Information Systems Frontiers 2019, pp. 1-16.