Segmenting Gamers
Through Clustering Gameplay Behaviors
Peter Liu & Laura Higgins
Sony PlayStation & JMP/SAS
Outline
● Business background
● Segmenting gamers
 Source data
 Processes, tools, and methods
 Business application
● Takeaways
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Serious gaming is a
BIG bu$ine$$.
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PlayStation was at a critical moment…
● Behind the market leader
 High hurdle to jump
● An opportunity to regain #1 position
 Once in a decade
● The future was on the line
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A Resounding Successful Launch
“The beast has arrived! PS4 time”
● Gamers cherished PS4
 1 Million PS4 sold on the 1st Day
 #1 top-selling US next-gen console
● Regained #1 Market Leadership
 #1 next-gen market share
 Overall market share jumped
The biggest launch ever in the history of game consoles.
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Drivers behind PS4 Launch
Consoles for Gamers – Focus on gamers
Targeted Marketing – Core PS gamers
Effective Pricing
Insights of/from Gamers
Listened to Gamers
Followed Gamers
Mining gameplay
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Segment Gamers
● Source Data
● Processes, tools, and methods
● Business applications
Listened to Gamers
Mining gameplay
Followed Gamers
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Source Data
● Large number of PS gamers (xx millions)
● Huge number of gameplay records (yy billions)
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Game title, genre, party type, Downloadable Contents (DLCs)
Device platform (PS3, PSVita, etc.)
Media types (disc games, digital games, videos)
Gameplay history (# of plays, play minutes, first play, last play, etc.)
● Transactions
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Processes, Tools, and Methods
● Data preparation, explorations, transformations, etc.
● JMP Pro, SAS, SQL
● PCA/Clusters
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Business Applications
● Marketing DLCs for A Disc Game
● Forecasting New Disc Game
● Predicting PS4 Purchasers
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Business Applications
● Marketing DLCs for A Disc Game
● Forecasting New Disc Game
● Predicting PS4 Purchasers
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Marketing DLCs for A Disc Game
● Gamers love disc games
● DLCs – DownLoad Contents (digital)
 New weapons, missions, characters, games
 Other add-ons downloaded online
● DLCs enrich and extend gaming experiences
● Segment gamers
 Who are most likely to buy DLCs?
 How many DLCs can be sold?
 How shall we approach gamers?
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DLCs for Disc Game (cont’d)
Clustering gamers by gameplay
● Data Set
 A random sample of 59k (5%)
 25 variables
● Analysis process
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Distribution analysis
Multivariate analysis
One-way analysis
PCA Analysis
K-means clustering
One-way analysis with cluster
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DLCs for Disc Game (cont’d)
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DLCs for Disc Game (cont’d)
● Clustering results
 4 effective clusters
● Implications
 Heavy gamers with passion variations (1 & 4)
 Gaming concentration
 Casual gamers – followers (2 & 3)
 Timing
 Gameplay intensity
 Price conscious
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DLCs for Disc Game (cont’d)
● Actions
 Targeted approach to each of 4 segments
 Messaging/relevance/timing/value propositions
● Impact
 DLC sales significantly higher than expectation
 Optimized marketing spending
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Clustering/Segmenting Gamers - Business
Applications
● Marketing DLCs for Disc Game
● Forecasting New Disc Game Sales
● Predicting PS4 Purchasers
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Forecasting New Disc Game Sales
Franchises
● Old & aggregated forecast approach didn’t work
● Built forecasts based on gamer clusters
● Cluster gamers for a game from a franchise
 Gamers (2 million)
 Gameplay behaviors
 Gamer attributes
● Impact
 More reliable sales forecast
 Increased understanding of gamers
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Clustering/Segmenting Gamers - Business
Applications
● Marketing DLCs for Disc Game
● Forecasting New Disc Game Sales
● Predicting PS4 Purchasers
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Predicting PS4 Purchasers
● Clustered PS3 gamers
 XX Million gamers: Gaming behaviors, gamer attributes
● Refined targeted audience
● Impact
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Enhanced marketing strategies
1 million PS4 consoles sold – 1st day
10 million PS4 sold globally (as of end of July 2014)
#1 market position
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Takeaways
● Analytics works - No short cut (an iterated process)
● Domain knowledge is critical
● JMP/SAS – Powerful enabling tools
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QUESTIONS?
Thanks!
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Acknowledge
● Much appreciation is extended to Jianfeng Ding, Senior Research Statistician
Developer at SAS/JMP, for her valuable advice and consulting in conducting
clustering analysis.
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