Al Rose is the VP of retail and Internet properties at Telus International

Product development and player support have not always gone hand in hand. In fact, exceptional customer service from a gaming company might be surprising. Considering that the online gaming economy relies heavily on attracting and retaining players, and then moving them to recurring monthly or micropayments, the lack of good customer support is even more surprising. A growing player base requires happy players. Recurring payments requires recurring customers. Customer service should be a given.

On the flip side, the digital entertainment industry is experiencing massive growth. In times of hyper-growth, companies can only manage a certain pace of expansion. During the startup phase, game development is the main focus – it’s all about the release of the game, the company’s core business and raison d’etre. Player support is often a secondary concern, edged out in favor of the frantic pace of design and launch of new games.

Adding to this, some studios still view players as commodities, not customers, which may in part explain why players have low expectations when it comes to receiving support. This is set to change as many studios realize that providing exceptional customer interactions, alongside popular games, can directly impact the bottom line.

As customer service becomes another battlefield for winning over players, how can developers enhance their own game plan for customer support?

• Understand your player: Studios need to develop emotional connections with players, particularly millennials, and match gamers with like-minded customer service representatives. You should staff your customer service team with gamers who are continually leveling-up in the game and able to understand the needs of the players they support.

• Platform-specific service: Customer care needs to suit various types of players. PC game players are often proud of their technical abilities and are more inclined to work with websites or download patches to fix their own problems. In contrast, console game players are convenience-driven and typically prefer having easy access to customer support.

Free-to-play players are used to finding support in community forums or on the developer’s website. This provides a real opportunity for game studios: enhancing the experience of non-paid players will increase their likelihood to recommend the game, potentially moving them to paid player status in the future.

• Capitalize on player feedback: Sophisticated game studios spend considerable resources analyzing player feedback on their games. Analyzing player feedback via customer support channels and funnelling it back to development teams ensures that games reflect the latest player demands. The result is increased player value, playtime, satisfaction, retention and ultimately their likelihood to recommend the game to friends.

• Real-time, multichannel support: Many in the gaming community rely on peer-to-peer player support, but there is a real advantage to offering good customer service directly. Providing 24/7 multi-channel support via voice, email, online and social networks enables your players to interact with you whenever and however they want.

• Social media: Social media is becoming a key outlet for players to battle other players. A social media presence also allows players to engage with developers in real time, in their preferred communication channel. For smaller game studios, it’s an effective way to reach a targeted and relevant audience to and increase their player base.

• Team up: Studios who don’t have the customer service expertise in-house should consider partnering with a contact center provider that does. The company then can focus on their core business, while their partner takes care of the player support infrastructure and delivery. These same providers can also scale up or down their personnel to suit the development and growth of the game.

Maximize player lifetime value

Game studios have a massive opportunity right now. Game players, particularly in the free-to-play sector, may not expect the best customer experience. As the industry becomes increasingly fragmented and competitive, smart game studios can extend their game lifecycle and improve the value of their brand by providing better customer service. A good player support strategy can be a game-changer – where fostering a culture of care will improve the player experience, resulting in player retention and ultimately, player recommendations.

Al Rose is the VP retail and Internet properties at Telus International – a provider of customer care support solutions to global clients including social media and MMO gaming companies.  He serves as an advisory board member to several independent software providers providing social media, MMO gaming, and digital entertainment products. You can reach Rose at al.rose@telus.com.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Gree has become a billion-dollar company in Japan with its mobile social games network. Now it is launching Zombie Jombie, the first title made by Gree’s U.S. developers for an American audience.

The title is an important one for Gree, which is competing with a larger rival Japanese firm DeNA, which has launched its worldwide mobile social network Mobage in an attempt to expand far beyond its audience of 35 million Japanese users.

It also marks the beginning of a big marketing campaign that includes a $50 million advertising budget, most of which will be spent when Gree launches its own mobile social network for gamers in the second quarter. To put that amount in perspective, it is the same sum Sony is spending on its enormous launch of the PlayStation Vita gaming handheld in the U.S.

Gree and DeNA are locked in a fierce battle to turn American mobile gamers into lucrative audiences in the same way that phone-crazy Japanese fans are. Both are vying to figure out the mobile social game market before rivals such as Electronic Arts, Gameloft, and Zynga do. The first one to do so could enjoy vast riches, said Naoki Aoyagi, CEO of Gree’s international subsidiary, Gree International, in a recent interview with VentureBeat.

Like DeNA, Gree has figured out how to monetize Japanese gamers, who make lots of purchases of virtual goods in games downloaded from Gree’s mobile social network. But Zombie Jombie will test whether Gree has what it takes to cater to U.S. tastes.

The new iOS-exclusive game is a free-to-play card-based game where the zombies are the good guys and the humans are the evil destroyers. (I guess that’s what it takes to be creative in the crowded zombie game market). A “Jombie” is a powerful being that can raise and control zombies and battle tough human bosses. Gree promises that, due to the variety of ways players can power-up their cards, no two players will ever have the same deck.

“The truly talented team members of the North American studio have really focused on creating an innovative game experience that ties together strong gameplay and great social features, an approach we plan to implement for all of our games moving forward.” says Eiji Araki, senior vice president of social games at Gree International.

Last year, Gree started preparing for its entry into the U.S. market with its acquisition of OpenFeint, a U.S.-based mobile social network. DeNA, meanwhile, purchased Ngmoco to take DeNA’s Mobage network to a global level. Other rivals include Electronic Arts and PapayaMobile.

Gree also recently created a 40,000-square-feet game studio in San Francisco. Thanks to OpenFeint’s large network, Gree can now reach 190 million players through 7,500 game apps. Among those developing games for Gree’s network are Ubisoft and Gameloft.

“Developers need a comprehensive social gaming platform with support for iOS and Android,” Aoyagi said. “There is a lot of competition, but there is no big winner like Facebook yet in mobile. The market is still fragmented, and it is going to be so big.”

Gree’s platform for social mobile games will launch in the second quarter. That means it is behind DeNA/Ngmoco, but Aoyagi said his company focused on building its team first. Gree International has around 180 people, and it has hired 50 people in the last two months, Aoyagi said.

Aoyagi believes that larger companies with “massive financial capacity” will come to dominate the mobile social gaming market. The social network will help with the problem of game-discovery, which has gotten worse as hundreds of thousands of game apps compete with each other for attention in mobile app stores. Gree will help developers with distribution, engagement, and monetization.

“We are in the best position, and in the next six months or 12 months, we can become a leader,” he said.

Will the U.S. become like Japan? It’s a tough question, Aoyagi notes, as the Japanese market is unique, with best-selling titles such as role-playing games and cat collection games.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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People who play the free-to-play social games, where users can play for free and pay real money for virtual goods, spend as much as $60 a month on transactions.

The company said that in 2011, players played 11 billion game sessions, or 350 games started every second. The top game was Bubble Shooter, in which 5.3 billion bubbles were blasted.

Since introducing social games to its stable of web games in July 2011, Spil Games, based in Hilversum, the Netherlands, has grown its global average revenue per user by 30 percent each month.

Teen boys generate some of the highest average revenue per paying user, resulting in $60 per month per user spending in Germany.

“The breadth of our offering and the personal approach available to developers is driving the kinds of numbers we’re seeing on our platforms,” said Peter Driessen, chief executive. “Players clearly want to go to a platform specializing in online gaming.”

Developers of top games could make $5 million per title in 2012 on the Spil Games platform, Driessen predicted.

Spil Games supports in-game payments in 60 countries. Players spend 85 minutes per month playing online games. Brazil and the U.S. have the most online gamers.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Unlike most of the more recent F2P MMO offerings, Conquer Online is a 2.5D MMORPG, meaning the perspective is more akin to Diablo than World of Warcraft. Considering the age of this game, many of the current tropes of MMOs remain firmly planted in the core of Conquer. There are six classes: Monk, Ninja, Archer, Taoist, Trojan and Warrior, all with unique attributes and skills.

Although the dated graphics might scare away those coming off the high of Infinity Blade II, the simplicity of Conquer Online is one of its greatest charms. Level progression is quick and easy, loot constantly covers the screen, and everyone is always in danger of the open player-versus-player fighting, one of the features the game hinges on. That’s right, anywhere outside of the towns is fair game, so it’s up to each player to decide if the rewards outweigh the risks when attacking passersby.

Other MMO staples such as mounts, improving equipment, and player housing make appearances as well. Social groups are abundant, including both Clans and Guilds for players to create and join. Marriage is also an option for the RP-centric gamers. There’s even a full-fledged game of Texas Hold’em Poker available in-game. Once players reach level 120, a feat that should take several dozens hours, a “new game plus”-type option called Rebirth. Rebirth starts players back from square one with a stronger starting character than before, able to replay through the entire game again.

The reaction has not been entirely positive thus far in terms of optimization for the iPad, as seen in the review from 148apps, stating that “[w]hile Conquer Online needs work doing to it to make it more user friendly for iPad owners, the groundwork is there.” On the other side of the spectrum, MMOGames lauds the very same control scheme, praising its simple click-to-attack gameplay as appropriate for a casual mobile title. It will be interesting to see how reactions pan out over the coming days and weeks as players further explore the port’s mechanics and changes. Until then, the game is currently free on the App Store.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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GamersFirst is essentially betting that switching All Points Bulletin, which was formerly on a monthly pay-to-play subscription model before it shut down in September, to a free-to-play model that makes money off the sale of virtual goods like weapons, will save the game. What GamersFirst may be forgetting is that APB’s developer, Realtime Worlds, chewed through $100 million before shutting its doors.

Simply making APB free for everyone to play isn’t a guarantee that gamers will flock back to the game. All Points Bulletin was universally slammed by critics. And that’s not because it was on a pay-to-play model — it simply wasn’t a good game. The game only garnered a score of 58 out of 100 after 42 reviews on Metacritic, a site that aggregates reviews into a single score. And even if gamers do pick up the game once again, there’s no guarantee the game would actually begin making money.

Some games have seen success shifting from a subscription-based revenue model to a free-to-play model. Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online, both games released by Turbine, are the most notable. Lord of the Rings Online’s revenue doubled after Turbine introduced microtransactions to help speed up character progression, and Dungeons and Dragons Online’s revenue went up by 500 percent.

But that’s mostly because the games were actually good, according to game critics. Lord of the Rings Online had a score of 86 out of 100 after 40 reviews on Metacritic, and Dungeons and Dragons Online had a slightly less-than-stellar — but by no means terrible — 74 out of 100 after 33 reviews.

Realtime Worlds previously created Crackdown, a third-person shooting game that took place in an open world urban environment and let gamers participate in all sorts of mayhem. Crackdown ended up being a cult hit, and picking up a score of 83 out of 100 after 75 reviews on Metacritic. The company built its staff to more than 250 employees and worked on All Points Bulletin for more than five years, only to find out that nobody wanted to play it.

So far there is only one successful subscription-based online game left. Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, one of the most dominant online games in history, has around 12 million players that pay $15 a month to access the game’s persistent world. And again, that’s simply because World of Warcraft is widely considered to be a fantastic game. The game received a score of 93 out of 100 after 57 reviews on Metacritic. World of Warcaft has been so dominant that it has forced many other subscription-based games to go free-to-play.

GamersFirst says that it has around 30 million players across 160 million countries playing its games. I guess it can only hope that those same gamers are more forgiving than the rest of the world was to APB the first time around.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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