How AI is Shaping the Future of Gaming: Inside the Benefits for Game Developers and Advertisers
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was once the stuff of science fiction novels. Today, however, it’s everywhere.
AI has already changed how we bank, how we commute, how we get work done — and given us our favorite virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa. Next up, it’s poised to change how we game.
AI and the Future of Gaming
The reality is, AI isn’t new to gaming — game developers have been using simple forms of AI for years to improve player interactions with their games.
But the capabilities of AI have now reached an entirely new level, and these advancements are set to impact gaming tremendously.
In order to truly understand the potential for AI in gaming, it’s important to first understand why AI is such a good fit for gaming. To work successfully, AI requires enormous amounts of data, and the more concentrated that data within the same behaviors, the smarter AI engines can become (and the faster they can do so). As a result, gaming is the perfect setting for AI to thrive, as every time gamers play they create mountains of data, all of which is focused on particular sets of oft-repeated behaviors.
For game developers, the biggest potential for AI lies in the ability to quickly and easily analyze the vast amounts of data that gamers create. Armed with this analysis, game developers can quickly map out playing patterns like:
- Drop-off points
- Gamer likes and dislikes
- Willingness to spend time on challenges
- Areas that are particularly difficult or easy
- Ideal points to place rewards and ads
How AI is Changing the Game for Developers & Advertisers
The opportunities to find learnings by analyzing game data with AI are limitless. Of course, those learnings are only as good as what you do with them, and the good news is that opportunities abound for game developers and advertisers alike to put those findings to work.
How Game Developers Can Put AI to Work
Overall, AI can help game developers improve the gaming experience by better understanding who plays their games and how.
Although game developers tend to be very passionate about their games and truly want to create the best possible gaming experience, many don’t use the easiest tool at their disposal to do so — data.
All of the necessary data to understand how gamers play is available today, it’s just a matter of having the right technology to cull and analyze that data (not to mention, do so quickly). That’s where AI comes in — making it easy for game developers to track player behavior, including how different gamers play, how far they go in the game, the time they spend on individual challenges, and so on.
Specifically, an AI engine can make sense of all of that data and provide game developers with targeted recommendations on how to improve the gaming experience, for example by adjusting especially difficult parts of the game to make them more enjoyable for gamers. It can also help identify the best places to reward gamers to create an additional incentive for them to play longer and the best spots to put ads to be as minimally disruptive to the player experience as possible.
How Advertisers Can Put AI to Work
Meanwhile, advertisers can also benefit from using the learnings uncovered by AI.
First, advertisers can work with game developers to determine the best spots within each game to place their advertisements in order to increase engagement.
Second, advertisers can use data about player behaviors, likes and dislikes in order to serve up a personalized ad experience that is more likely to resonate with individual gamers and pique their interest so that they engage with the ads.
Finally, advertisers can work directly with programs like the one we’re creating in the Monetizr game reward engine to extend across multiple games. The universal profiles help marketers identify gamers as they move from one game to the next and deliver a consistent experience. This consistency can help create stickiness with gamers to further boost engagement.
The Future Has Arrived
Although AI was once the stuff of science fiction, it’s now the stuff powering many of the technologies we use throughout our everyday lives. We’re just scratching the surface of what we can do with AI, but it already has monumental potential to improve the gaming experience and deliver key benefits to the game developers and advertisers that employ it — it’s simply a matter of getting started.
If you want to learn more about how Monetizr is using AI to enhance the gaming experience and create value for game developers and marketers.
