Raptr Report Proves “Community as a Service” Approach Vital for Gamers, Game Publishers

Raptr Says Games as a Service Model is Incomplete; Data Shows Rich Community Activities Dramatically Increase New Players, Returning Gamers, Overall Playtime

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Raptr, the leading community of nearly 15 million gamers, has released a Raptr Report that examines the benefits of establishing trusted relationships with players through community services. The study, using data that is available for the first time, reveals that game companies with frequent community engagement programs generate impressive results with user acquisition, retention and reengagement. Raptr’s conclusion is that the current “games as a service” approach is incomplete as it lacks emphasis on the player lifecycle; the addition of a “community as a service” approach benefits the players, and in turn, has a vital impact on the publisher’s bottom line.

“The games as a service era is here and it would be a big mistake to think that simply means ongoing game updates and metrics-based iterations”

“The games as a service era is here and it would be a big mistake to think that simply means ongoing game updates and metrics-based iterations,” said Dennis Fong, CEO of Raptr. “Most publishers and developers tend to think of a robust community program as goodwill initiatives, but this data shows that it's not just nice to have - it impacts the success of the game directly. Developers and publishers need to consider being player-first by design.”

The Raptr Report looks at the actual gameplay habits of players to get a deeper understanding of how key community activities translate into a larger, more dedicated player base that spends more time playing games. The report finds that publishers and developers that create key activities for gamer communities, including mod tools, eSports events and loyalty programs, can help attract new players and bring back lapsed players. For instance, mods can bring in spikes of new players up to 20 times normal rates and an ongoing community engagement program can result in sustained monthly growth of more than 7 percent. Vibrant community engagement also means more gameplay activity; Raptr observes up to twice more time spent in games with high support.

The report examines the impact of community activities for games including Portal 2, ArmA II, League of Legends, Lost Saga and Backlight: Retribution. Key findings include:

• Valve’s official mod tools for Portal 2 revitalized the player community: the mod tools and user-generated content brought in 23x new users, 11x returning players (defined by players who had lapsed by two weeks or more) and increased the average playtime per user by 36 percent
• DayZ, a popular user generated mod for ArmA II put the game on the map: the mod brought in 14x more new players, and increased reengagement of lapsed users by more than 2x within a month of release. Bohemia Interactive reported that sales for ArmA II spiked 40x within 4 months
• League of Legends by Riot Games experiences 7.6 percent user growth each month on average, in part due to frequent community engagement activities. New players join at a 10 percent rate on average after eSport events
• OG Planet’s implementation of Raptr Rewards, a loyalty program that incentivizes gamers to play more, increased weekly playtime of Lost Saga per user by 185 percent and drove more than 5x new players and 180 percent returning users to the game within one week
• Perfect World’s use of Raptr Community Platform activities for its title Blacklight: Retribution, including Raptr Rewards and a developer/community Q&A, increased daily active users (DAU) by 4x over the course of several months

Read the full report for more analysis and never-before-published data at: http://blog.raptr.com/2012/10/03/community-as-a-service/

Methodology:

This report is based on data collected from Raptr’s service, available at www.raptr.com. Raptr is the leading social network for gamers and currently tracks gameplay activity for nearly 15 million users across PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This Raptr Report analyzes actual gameplay data from Portal 2, League of Legends, Arma II, Lost Saga and Blacklight: Retribution. Data is compiled from the launch of Raptr to August 2012.

Built with powerful proprietary data tracking features, Raptr analyzes more than 500 million hours of gameplay activity and is the industry’s only source for comprehensive gameplay trends and statistics across console platforms and PC.

About Raptr

Raptr is the leading community for gamers, with nearly 15 million users. Gamers love using Raptr to connect with all things gaming, whether to track their gameplay activity, build their gaming rep and seeing how they stack up against friends, or earning real rewards just for playing games on console and PC. Over 40 game publishers use Raptr's Community Platform to connect with our users, and build a vibrant fan base around their games.

Created in 2007 by a world-class team led by CEO and founder Dennis Fong (co-founder of Xfire, Lithium, and Gamers.com), Raptr has raised more than $27 million in funding from investors Accel Partners, Founder’s Fund, DAG Ventures, and Tenaya Capital. For more information about Raptr, please visit http://raptr.com.