Game publishers are in an epic showdown to outpace fierce competition fueled by cutting-edge technology, gamer expectations, and a recent gaming surge. Gamers today crave the latest graphics, immersive characters, and worlds that captivate their imaginations. 

Gaming models are also changing, moving away from single-player games to online, live service and mobile games. Digital advertising spending is exploding, and high gamer churn is shaking up the industry. The key to combatting both lies in player retention.  

The powerhouse that elevates 24 of the top 25 video game publishers today is Keywords Studios. Founded in 1998, Keywords Studios is an international technical service provider that offers a range of services including art, game development, audio, localisation, QA, marketing services, community engagement, and player support. The company works with top-name publishers like Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft), Electronic Arts (EA SPORTS FC, Battlefield, The Sims), Epic Games (Fortnite, Rocket League), Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six Siege), and Take-Two Interactive (Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K).  

Keywords Studios generates massive amounts of data in its quest to uplevel video games and is on a mission to revolutionize video games by unlocking new and valuable possibilities.  

Simon Stokes heads up data and strategy for the company and leads the charge to advance the strategy to the next level. “We knew we had loads of valuable, informative data, and we wanted to drill down into it,” says Stokes. “Snowflake and Slalom were the perfect package to do that.”

Slalom’s trusted partner Snowflake introduced us to Keywords Studios, asking us to facilitate a workshop around the company’s data and usage. 

“We started by setting the foundations to ensure repeatable data availability to optimise ROI reporting across several game developer studios partners,” says Chris Connon, a senior principal with Slalom. “The team liked our work and they were ready to start monetising data in new ways.”  

Through Slalom’s innovative data monetisation strategies, we enabled Keywords Studios to create incremental value by using insights to provide a seamless gamer experience across all touchpoints. By identifying key opportunities to enhance engagement and reduce churn, the company was able to deliver personalised content and support at critical moments by effectively addressing gameplay issues to reduce attrition rates. Additionally, we streamlined customer data initiatives, reducing redundancies and enhancing data access and action, empowering teams to make informed decisions and drive impactful outcomes. 

Slalom then worked with Keywords Studios and Snowflake to build a custom AI sentiment analysis tool called Lens that allows the team to better understand and analyse customer attitudes in real time. The studio previously relied on an off-the-shelf tool and found that the new AI sentiment tool provided a more conversational interface that made it easier to explore nuanced information and garner higher-quality insights.  

Stokes says, “This is the clever bit—the AI sentiment analysis tool Slalom built is like having an expert social media marketer drill down into the characters, gameplay, and other details. It also allows us to produce detailed reports for our publishers based on this information so we can provide deep insights.”  

The AI sentiment analysis functionality harnesses AI to analyse in-game behaviour and player sentiment from social media platforms, delivering actionable insights to boost engagement and minimise churn. For example, by examining customer attitudes to determine if they are positive, negative, or neutral, Lens can identify gamer opinions about a specific character in a game.  

The work goes beyond traditional analytics by shaping marketing and community strategies and creating personalised experiences that maximise revenue opportunities. The tool also supports publishers in discovering innovative advertising avenues. 

Connon says, “This work has shown Keywords Studios the benefits of the technology so that the team can use it across different business functions. It’s also enabled the studio to be more confident in being a data- and insight-led business.”  

Lens also delivers immediate cost-savings because the company can use it to onboard community managers efficiently without paying for additional licenses. “Keywords Studios can train the model to be much more adaptive and deploy it quickly because training costs are minimal and usability is high,” says Connon. “The work changes the way the studio supports and engages its clients through data and insights.” 

“If publishers can understand players better—what they’re excited about and what frustrates them—that’s like a superpower for them. Now we can more effectively help publishers get closer to audiences,” says Stokes. “It’s what I like to call a win-win-win—good for players, publishers, and us.”