Measuring the Online Gamer GDC Austin – September 2008 MEASURING THE DIGITAL WORLD

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 2 2 Data Sourced From comScore’s Global Panel of 2MM Internet Users Worldwide 360° View of Consumer Behavior Media Exposure Media Exposure Online Transactions Search Behavior Search Behavior Demographics Life Stages Demographics Life Stages Gameplay Web Visiting and Viewing A Global Measurement of Audience and e-Commerce 32 Individually Reported Countries 172 Countries with Sample Presence

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 3 Companies that use our data… TelcomFinancialRetailTravelCPGPharmaTechnology

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 4 comScore observes consumers’ online gaming behaviors Starting with a large sample of audiences in nearly every country… We predict, with great accuracy, the behaviors of the entire World-wide audience…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 5 Additionally… Edward Hunter, from comScore Gordon Freeman, from Half-Life <>

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 6 The need for gaming audience measurement Gamers Ages: 18 – 24 Gender: Males Country: U.S. Gamers Ages: 18 – 24 Gender: Males Country: U.S. In the beginning things were easy. Throw a rock at a group of U.S. 18 – 24 males, hit a gamer, hit five gamers…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 7 The need for gaming audience measurement Gamers Ages: 18 – 24 Gender: Males Country: Worldwide Those days are gone. You’ll still hit a gamer if you throw a rock… Gamers Ages: 35+ Gender: Females Country: Worldwide Genre: Console/Fitness Gamers Ages: Gender: Females Country: Worldwide Genre: Online MMO Gamers Ages: Gender: Females Country: Worldwide Genre: Online MMO Gamers Ages: Gender: Females Country: Worldwide Genre: Offline Casual Gamers Ages: Gender: Females Country: Worldwide Genre: Offline Casual Gamers Ages: 54+ Gender: Males Country: Worldwide Genre: Online Multiplayer Board, Card Gamers Ages: 54+ Gender: Males Country: Worldwide Genre: Online Multiplayer Board, Card But unless your game is targeted at that specific type of gamer..

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 8 The need for gaming audience measurement Probably you’ll just have really angry gamers. But understanding and measuring your audience(s) isn’t only important to protect yourself from an angry mob..

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore The Demand for `Hard Numbers` is rising… 9 Who is making the demand? What are they demanding? Take Away: Your elevator pitches had better start including more numbers than just the floor your getting off on.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore Where are the changes in gamer audiences happening? The short answer is: Everywhere. 10

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore Where is this change occurring? Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan You are reading this correctly; 2.2 million more young girls are playing online games than last year.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore Where is this change occurring? Are we awake yet? Then how about the 4 million new female gamers in the 35+ demo, up 21% over last year? Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore Where is this change occurring? Certainly though as we get older, our gameplay slows…right? 13 Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan Apparently, one and a half million new male gamers over 55 years old didn’t get that memo

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 14 Newsflash: Those numbers were all just U.S. Here’s the world-wide picture The audience for online games worldwide grew 29% in the last 12 months adding 68 million new gamers. Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore So what’s the big idea? The Gamer we used to know. 18 – 34 Male Technically Savvy Resistant to Marketing Less frequent consumption of traditional media

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore So what’s the big idea? The Gamer today. All ages, genders, ethnicities Internet Savvy Accustomed to advertising Consuming less traditional media The big idea is: The gaming audience has changed from unique to mainstream, so creating and marketing games needs to become more mainstream..

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore Key Takeaways ■The overall gaming audience world-wide is growing fast ■The demographics experiencing the most interesting growth are also the unexpected demographics ■These demographics are not all Gen-Y/Gen-X, you cannot reach them with skateboards and Mountain Dew™.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 18 Three critical reasons to measure your audience Market Sizing Audience Profiling Marketing R each Publishers and Studios can get an accurate estimate of the consumer market for an online game Producers and content developers can understand the lifestyle and characteristics of the audience being targeted Marketing teams can discover where to find the target consumers for the game

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 19 It’s important to note that; Much about the gaming audience has changed. 1.More women play games online then men. 2.Game genres no longer dictate the audience for that game, where the game is played is now a major contributing factor. 3.Attitudes of gamers have changed as the demographic compositions have been altered. 4. The most successful games today are marketed in traditional media channels, across a broad set of target demographics 5.The behaviors or the online gaming audiences show little difference today than the audiences of any other mainstream medium. It will never return to the standard Male audience it once was.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 20 Online Gamers Internet Persona - Demographics Geographic Distribution Age Breakouts Gender Incomes Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 21 Online Gamers Internet Persona - Engagement Males Female Online Gameplay Average Session Times Women Prefer (Top 3 Preferences) : - Puzzle, Card and Arcade Games Men Prefer (Top 3 Preferences) : - Action, Cards, Strategy Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 22 Checkpoint How much do you know about your target audience(s)?

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 23 Audiences change, perceptions change 18 – 34 Traditional Notions “Hardcore Gamers” Game Advertising Resistant

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 18 – Audiences change, perceptions change Maturing Gamers Traditional Notions “Softer Gamers” Grew up online with ads As young teens age, they enter the next demographic Bringing with them the behavioral characteristics of the previous demo.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 18 – Audiences change, perceptions change Traditional Notions “Light Gamers” No preconceptions Open to most gaming models New Gamers New gamers enter the gaming demographic with a completely different set of characteristics And those become part of the demographic too.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 26 Audiences change, perceptions change 18 – 34 Traditional Notions “Mixed Gamers” Lifestyle changes 35+ MATURING GAMERS New Gamers Traditional Notions “New adopters console online casual

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 27 Audiences change, perceptions change

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 28 What everyone knows: Online Gamers have changed… So, how do we track and measure this change?

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 29 What does ‘Measuring the Online Gamer’ Mean? ■Change in the online gaming audience has taken place in:  Age  Gender  Nationality  Locale  Media Consumption  Spending Habits  Online behaviors  Offline (lifestyle) behaviors Why does the gaming audience seem to have such broad attributes?

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 30 All online gamers are not created alike… ■‘Connected’ or Online Games come in many shapes and sizes –MMO –Shooters –Casual and hard core card games –Casual ‘widget’ games –More… ■Gameplay crosses genres…sometimes. ■Interests and behaviors differ greatly between gaming audiences ■Reaching and understanding ‘online gamers’? Too large of a target. Lets start thinking about Online Gamer ‘Segments’

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 31 Heavy Online Gamer Light Online Gamer What the heck is an ‘Online Gamer Segment’? Behaviors ■Online 57 hours a month –And 24% of that is online gaming ■Leans towards Instant messaging, Gaming Information Sites ■Demographically Trends towards Male ■Online game genre favorites are MMO, FPS, RTS Behaviors ■Online 36 hours a month –Only 1% of that is online gaming ■Consumes more traditional entertainment and retail content ■Demographically Trends towards Female ■Online game genre favorites are puzzle, card, strategy EXAMPLE: COMPARING THE ‘HEAVY ONLINE GAMER’ TO THE ‘LIGHT ONLINE GAMER’ Source: comScore (c) 2008

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore And that means what exactly? 32 While significant overlap in online gamer behaviors exist, behaviors overall between groups can be dramatic. Obvious overlap in behaviors can be self-evident, but the devil is in the details...

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore Show of hands: Which category of online gamers exhibits the highest traffic to online computer hardware retailers? Light gamers visitation to Retail Computer Hardware sites ranks #1 in overall retail site visitation Medium online gamers rank #2… Heavy online gamers rank it #4… After books… And Department Stores…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore Lets try again: Rank Light, Medium and Heavy Online gamers by musical entertainment consumption online… Light online gamers have the highest consumption of music entertainment online Heavy online gamers rank #2… Medium gamers come in third… After television… And kids entertainment…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 35 A difference in approaching the target… The old way… “ONLINE GAMERS” Psst! I’m a big huge target…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 36 A difference in approaching the target… The NEW way… Heavy online gamers Male (18 – 34) Heavy online gamers Female (18 – 34) Medium online gamers Male (12 – 18) Light online gamers Female (18 – 34)

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 37 Market Sizing: How many people will play your game? The measurement of online behaviors that pertain to online gaming effectively establish the market size potential of an online game. Online content consumption Search terms and search volume Online purchasing Game play/Cross Play Genre, platform, interactivity preferences

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 38 Audience Profiling: Who are these people anyway? Once you have established the online behaviors of your target audience, defining who they are is a matter of documenting; Age, Gender, Geographic and Income Demographics Internet connection speed PC or console details Gameplay behaviors (e.g Subscriptions to games, Widget game play) Offline behaviors, lifestyle, viewpoints, attitudes

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 39 Marketing to the Masses: You know how many, you know who, so…where are they? Marketing to your target audience is simple: find out where the audience hangs out online. Anyone can figure that out. Honing in on other behaviors = competitive advantage: Traditional Media Consumption (Television, Print, etc) Lifestyle, habits and hobbies Travel, electronics and media purchasing And all of the other measurements too….

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore ■Don’t go radio silent ■Make traditional internet calls ■Signal user actions –Ad exposure –Session start/Session stop –Significant actions –Insert (thing you want to measure) here All Present ation Data Sources provide d by comSco re ©2008 Build your games to be measured!!

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