akamai gaming

The gaming industry continues to grow rapidly, and it is projected to grow another 30% in the next three years1 . Online gaming is driving this growth as the industry is making a seismic shift from disk to digital. This shift comes with an abundance of opportunities and challenges, as digital gaming makes it easier than ever to get games into the hands of more players, in more places, in less time. TechValidate Research surveyed 131 Akamai Technologies, Inc. customer accounts to find out more about how gaming companies are innovating the marketplace and the challenges they need to overcome in order to do so. The results show the importance of web security, that acquiring and retaining new users is the biggest business challenge companies are facing, and that mobile is taking over as the most popular gaming platform.

While the shift from disk to digital offers tremendous potential opportunities, it also presents a host of new challenges for gaming companies. As the online channel grows increasingly complex and the pace of innovation accelerates, many companies struggle to keep up. Not only are there websites and storefronts to manage, but also real-time gaming servers, large software downloads, and live-streamed competitions and events. Games are transforming from fixed, boxed products to dynamic, ongoing services – with frequently updated content, in-game micro-transactions, virtual goods and social interactions. Mobile adds another dimension to the trend, as consumers increasingly look to play on smart phones and tablets – or on multiple screens across devices. To successfully navigate this complex and changing landscape, gaming companies need an agile, high- performance infrastructure that allows them to turn the Internet into a reliable and effective online distribution channel. This requires f

You’ve spent time and money to develop an impressive in-game experience and attract and acquire new players. You’ve studied your CPA and eCPI, tweaked key in-game events to drive retention and conversion, and you’ve got your marketing engine humming, focused on engagement. Despite all this effort, you’re still not hitting your goals. Conversions are lower than expected. Churn is high. Something is not right, but you are not sure what it is. Akamai has been helping game developers and distributors maximize the web performance of games for more than a decade. This brief outlines some common obstacles and how you can overcome them.

The Games industry is growing at break-neck speed, surpassing growth rates of the Entertainment industry as a whole. Many Games industry players are joining the race to win-over the coveted online games audience. Developing new games that not only draw in audiences, but also keep them engaged is an on-going challenge. Recently we solicited feedback from more than 150 Akamai global games customers to gain industry insights into the challenges and opportunities their faced with each day. We would like to share their responses with you.

You’ve created a great game, so why do players keep abandoning it? The answer is frictions— the obstacles and flaws that erode player satisfaction, disrupt immersion, and ultimately cause players to look elsewhere. This abandonment not only impacts your game and revenue but also your studio’s reputation for years to come. In “Understanding Frictions” Akamai’s Nelson Rodriguez, a gaming industry insider who’s helped launch successful titles like Halo 3, will explain how to minimize frictions so you can maximize player enjoyment, loyalty, and revenue. Read “Understanding Frictions” so you can analyze your game’s points of friction using our matrix and learn how to manage, reduce, or eliminate frictions at every development stage.