Playing for Keeps: IGN/GameSpy Using Inquisite to Maintain Competitive Edge in Online Gaming Industry
Building customer loyalty in the highly competitive world of online gaming isn't something IGN/GameSpy is willing to leave to chance. IGN/GameSpy, one of the world's leading online multiplayer gaming communities, is leveraging web survey technology from Inquisite Inc. to learn more about the purchasing habits and gaming preferences of its 18 million registered users.
With one of the largest gaming information subscriber bases on the web, IGN/GameSpy has a network of video game products and services that include GameSpy.com, FilePlanet.com, GameSpyArcade.com, more than 60 Planet community sites and over 7,000 hosted sites. Thousands of gamers play daily in the GameSpy Arcade, which features hundreds of free multiplayer games and product demos. Enthusiasts also visit the IGN/GameSpy Editorial Network, which offers the latest news, previews and reviews of the hottest console and PC games.
IGN/GameSpy's popularity among its vast and enthusiastic subscriber base means that advertisers, game developers and publishers and hardware/software vendors flock to the network to market their products. Due to dramatic growth in online gaming and consumers' growing expectations about new product offerings, developers and publishers are facing the challenge of increasing costs to bring a game to market. Marketing budgets and development costs for game components, such as graphics, animation and music, have skyrocketed as developers struggle to capture consumer mindshare. As a result, game developers and publishers need those multi-million-dollar winners to more than cover their costs.
High–Volume Data Collection Essential with 18 Million Registered Users
To ensure its advertisers and developers are achieving maximum ROI, IGN/GameSpy began administering Inquisite surveys across its network to ask gamers about the types of games they prefer, how much they're willing to spend for new offerings, their hardware and operating systems, and general demographic information. Inquisite is a highly scalable, customizable, automated web survey system for enterprises like IGN/GameSpy and other organizations that deploy surveys for high-volume data collection across large respondent populations.
IGN/GameSpy does an average of three to five brief surveys per month, each generating about 5,000 responses in five days or less. The company's market research team publishes customized 10- to 15-question surveys in just minutes based on input from advertisers and developers. As gamers move through the IGN/GameSpy network, pop-up windows invite them to take the surveys.
"While our subscriber base is very loyal and enthusiastic about providing feedback on the games and other offerings they see on the network, we're very careful to not be too intrusive by over-surveying or asking them too many questions per survey," said Bree Goldman, IGN/GameSpy's research manager. "Fortunately, gamers are a serious group that is willing to share their opinions about what they experience. Therefore, we're able to obtain critical data that helps us better tailor our product and service offerings to meet gamers' increasingly sophisticated tastes."
IGN/GameSpy subscribers were so enthusiastic about responding to one particular survey that Goldman's team logged 5,000 responses in just one day. The survey asked gamers detailed questions about their PC hardware and operating systems. "Many of our gamers build their own systems and spend a great deal of money doing so. This information is extremely important for us and for our clients, a great many of whom are developers and PC component manufacturers," said Goldman.
Flexibility, Ease-of-Use Key to Rapid Turn-Around of Data
Once a survey has closed, Goldman and her team import the data into Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office programs, producing custom reports for clients and IGN/GameSpy's own Consumer Products Division, which uses the information to monitor industry trends and develop marketing plans to address them.
"Inquisite has given us, our advertisers, game developers and publishers the flexibility to respond quickly to the changing tastes of tech-savvy game fans," Goldman said. "We are able to quickly and easily customize the look and feel of a survey and the order of questions as well as exporting data. Since we're able to keep administration time to a minimum, we can really leverage the data we're collecting in almost real time. It's a win-win situation for everyone."