IBM > Case Studies > Big Fish Games: Leveraging IoT for Enhanced Customer Engagement and Competitive Advantage

Big Fish Games: Leveraging IoT for Enhanced Customer Engagement and Competitive Advantage

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics
Cybersecurity & Privacy - Intrusion Detection

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Behavior & Emotion Tracking
Livestock Monitoring

Services

Data Science Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Founded in 2002, Big Fish Games is the world’s largest producer and distributor of casual games, delivering more than 2.5 billion games to customers in over 150 countries from a growing catalog. The company transitioned from a PC-centric to a mobile-centric gaming company, catering to the evolving profile of gamers in the digital age. With the proliferation of smartphones, most people now carry the equivalent of a games console in their pockets. This has led to the rise of casual gamers and the democratization of game development. Big Fish Games is headquartered in Seattle, WA, with regional offices in Oakland, CA, and Luxembourg.

The Challenge

Big Fish Games, a leading producer and distributor of casual games, faced a significant challenge in the highly competitive mobile and online gaming industry. The company needed to identify loyal clients and reduce customer churn to maintain its market position. The transition from a PC-centric to a mobile-centric gaming company brought about a change in strategy. With millions of games available to mobile users and new releases emerging rapidly, the window of opportunity to capture and keep the attention of a player was shrinking. The key to success for Big Fish Games was understanding customers’ changing tastes to deliver the optimal balance between challenging and satisfying gameplay. However, the company struggled to manage escalating volumes of data from tens of millions of players from around the world each day. The large data sets made it difficult to conduct effective analytical exercises without hitting dead ends.

The Solution

To overcome these challenges, Big Fish Games integrated IBM® PureData® System for Analytics and IBM InfoSphere® BigInsights® solutions with IBM Fluid Query to create a smarter data analytics process. The IBM PureData System for Analytics was used for the analysis of structured data, providing quick and easily consumable results. InfoSphere BigInsights enabled the company to rapidly onboard huge amounts of unstructured data and carry out more experimental analysis. This provided invaluable insight into which avenues to explore further and where to pull back. The seamless integration between the PureData System and InfoSphere BigInsights solutions, along with Fluid Query, allowed Big Fish Games to leverage the different strengths and capabilities of Hadoop and PureData System for Analytics together. The company utilized the solution to build a holistic view of player behavior, guiding current and future game development.

Operational Impact

With the implementation of the IBM solutions, Big Fish Games is now able to tap into consumer behaviors to deliver games that keep players coming back for more. The company can carry out in-depth analysis of the gameplay experience before releasing major new games, allowing them to iron out any rough spots and ramp up the most appealing content. For existing games, they can focus on the elements that make popular releases successful and use this to inspire additional content. This has led to increased customer engagement and loyalty, and the attraction of new users. In the fast-moving gaming industry, Big Fish Games can now recognize and respond faster to changes in trends than ever before, offering the company a key competitive advantage. The ability to identify and react to subtle changes in players’ behavior is helping the company take the lead over competitors.