Electronic Entertainment Design and Research

Electronic Entertainment Design and Research
Private
Industry Market Research
Founded 2006
Headquarters Carlsbad, California, United States of America
Key people
 Greg Short, Chief Executive Office; Geoffrey Zatkin, Chief Product Office;Rob Liguori, Chief Operating Officer; Jesse Divnich, VP Insights
Products DesignMetrics, GamePulse, Research & Publications, Financial Services, Retail Services, Data Integration, Mobile Qualitative & Quantitative Services
Website www.eedar.com

EEDAR is a video game industry specific market research firm headquartered in Carlsbad, California. EEDAR was founded in 2006 by a team of interactive software veterans.[1]

Overview

EEDAR is a market research organization that provides services in seven different business divisions: DesignMetrics, Gamepulse, Research & Publications, Financial Services, Retail Services, Data Integration, and Mobile Qualitative & Quantitative services. EEDAR has amassed a proprietary database with over 100,000 products broken down into more than 100,000,000 data points, a Guinness World Record,[2] that is the foundation for all of EEDAR’s services.

Business Divisions and Product Lines

DesignMetrics

DesignMetrics is a sales and performance forecast service with a +/- 10% accuracy for the first three month sales. Designed for publishers and developers to help make crucial decisions, DesignMetrics can provide sales forecasts(US, EU or Worldwide), “What if” Scenarios to determine sales impact on feature choices, SWOT Analysis and Mock Reviews/Review Score Forecast of a specific upcoming game title.[3]

Gamepulse

Gamepulse is the video game industry’s information service. It provides game title information, sales and performance data (North America & EFIGS, Retail & Digital), Downloadable content and digital games, review scores & media outlets, publisher & developer performance, industry trends (Macro & Micro), macro forecasting and market sizing, franchise insights, marketing and mixed media analysis, consumer awareness and activity data, retail circular advertising, product virality and word-of-mouth activity, institutional knowledge management, and custom dashboarding.[4]

Research & Publications

In September 2010, EEDAR published a report called “Deconstructing Downloadable Content”, a series of four individual reports that explore consumer behaviors and historical data related to downloadable games and digital content. EEDAR also provides custom research services including data collection, formatting, topical studies and competitive analysis.[5] Financial Services: Financial services provide a range of products tailored to the financial industry. Financial services include due diligence research products, analytic consulting, company profiling, trend monitoring and forecasting services.[6]

Retail Services

Retail services provide a range of products tailored to the retail industry. Retail services include North America retail game data feeds (English and Spanish), North America and European console downloadable game and downloadable content data feeds (PSN, XBL), Feature based recommendation and discovery technology for POS, e-commerce, kiosk and mobile services, Loyalty enhancement data and technology packages, Market trending, demand planning and buyer intelligence dashboards, and support.[7]

Mobile Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

EEDAR’s suite of mobile, tablet, and social products help publishers and developers optimize their games before they are released to the public.[8]

Mock Reviews and Previews

EEDAR's mock reviews and previews break down a game’s specific strengths and weaknesses, offers suggestions on which sections of the game demo well and which do not, delivers realistic recommendations for how the game could be improved, and details specific PR and marketing touch points that the games media will respond to.[9]

Data Management

EEDAR provides data alignment and consolidation services covering areas such as: Retail Ship-In, Sell Thru and Inventory Actuals, Digital Games & Content Sales Data, Media Spend Forecasts & Actuals, Financial Restatements & Reconciliation, and Foreign Currency Conversion.[10]

Notable Research / Accomplishments

SMU/EEDAR Study

In 2010, SMU Guildhall and EEDAR teamed up to do a study measuring the impact of review scores and sales. The study split 165 participants who had never played Plants vs. Zombies into three groups: one who had been exposed to high review scores before playing, one who had been exposed to low review scores, and a control group who hadn’t been exposed to any.

On completing the study, the participants got a choice of taking the game or $10 in cash. Participants who were exposed to high review scores were twice as likely to take the game. Also, the participants who were shown higher review scores gave on average the game 20 points higher a review score than participants who were exposed to a low review score.[11][12][13]

DICE 2010

At DICE 2010, the CEO and COO of EEDAR, Greg Short and Geoffrey Zatkin, presented “Forces at Play: Examining What Has Really Been Impacting the Videogame Industry, and What It Means Going Forward” that analyzed the current 7th generation hardware cycle and how publishing strategies evolved over the life cycle of the hardware.[14][15]

GDC Europe 2010

At GDC Europe 2010, CEO Greg Short previewed EEDAR’s new “Deconstructing DLC Report” that showed, for example, that a majority of consumers want DLC for a new game 1 to 3 months after a game is released. Short comments that, given the data, DLC needs to become part of the game industry’s strategy. Short also showed that there is little difference between free and paid DLC, and that consumers want DLC whether or not it is free.[16]

E3 2010

After E3 2010, EEDAR released popular interest stats based upon trailer various attention matrix from Gametrailers.com and IGN.com. Joystiq.com, a popular games industry news website, noted some of the similarities and peculiarities in the lists published by EEDAR.[17][18]

Female Gamers

In 2010, EEDAR released a study about the gender of characters and how it affects the quality and sales of a game. Jesse Divnich, the VP of Analyst Services, wrote that “console games over the last 5 years show no aggregate statistical evidence that indicates that gender selection (aside from having no gender at all) impacts quality scores.” Sales of a game are more determined by brand awareness, marketing spend, development budget and other factors that have little to do with the gender of the playable character.[19]

Forbes

EEDAR was listed #15 on Forbes’ list of America Most Promising Companies, which is based on the size of their potential market, the strength of their intellectual property, experience of their management team, and track record in hitting product development benchmarks. [20][21][22]

Guinness Record

At E3 2010, Guinness World Records presented EEDAR with an award for Largest Electronic Database of Video Game Features with over 25 million quantifiable data points.[23]

DICE 2012

At the DICE Summit in 2012, Jesse Divnich spoke at a panel discussing the current state of the video games industry and what role publisher have in today's market.[24]

Game Marketing Summit 2013

EEDAR CEO Greg Short gave a lecture at the Game Marketing Summit examining general trends and best in class case studies within the core, casual and emerging gaming markets.[25]

Business partners

Nielsen

In February 2009, EEDAR and Nielsen announced a market research partnership. Information from Nielsen’s Monitor Plus is combined with EEDAR’s proprietary game database to further augment EEDAR’s Gamepulse and DesignMetrics services and increase marketing campaign effectiveness.[26][27][28]

GameTrailers

In February 2009, EEDAR and GameTrailers announced a partnership to combine GameTrailers attention metrics with EEDAR’s Gamepulse and DesignMetrics services.[29][30]

ESRB

EEDAR and ESRB partner to provide statistics in GamePulse and DesignMetrics on games’ ESRB ratings.[31]

Rentrak

In December 2009, Rentrak and EEDAR signed a data integration contract to further augment EEDAR’s GamePulse service.[32]

Distimo

In March 2013, EEDAR entered into a new data sharing agreement with Distimo, a globally recognized leader in app store market data and analytics for mobile and tablet games.[33]

Market Track

In March 2013, EEDAR partnered with Market Track, allowing integration of extensive promotion and pricing data from their proprietary database into GamePulse.[34]

References

  1. ↑ "EEDAR Homepage". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ↑ "EEDAR Game Database". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ↑ "EEDAR DesignMetrics". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  4. ↑ "EEDAR Gamepulse". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ↑ "EEDAR Research and Publications". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  6. ↑ "EEDAR Financial Services". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ↑ "EEDAR Retail Services". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  8. ↑ "EEDAR Mobile Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis". Retrieved 2013-07-22.
  9. ↑ "EEDAR Mock Reviews". Retrieved 2013-07-22.
  10. ↑ "The Challenge of Data Management". Retrieved 2013-07-22.
  11. ↑ Alexander Sliwinski (7/6/2010). "EEDAR/SMU study: review scores affect perceived quality, purchase intent". Joystiq. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |date=, |accessdate= (help)
  12. ↑ Winda Benedetti (2010-07-07). "Video game reviews really do matter". MSNBC. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  13. ↑ Leigh Alexander (2010-07-07). "Study: Review Scores Directly Impact Consumer Purchasing, Opinion". Gamasutra. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  14. ↑ Stephen Johnson (February 19, 2010). "DICE 2010 Video: EEDAR's Greg Short & Geoffrey Zatkin". G4TV. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  15. ↑ Kim Pallister (February 22, 2010). "Thoughts from DICE 2010". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  16. ↑ Alexander Sliwinski (August 16, 2010). "EEDAR: consumers have greater interest in DLC a month after game's release". Joystiq. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  17. ↑ Mike Schramm (June 26, 2010). "EEDAR releases preliminary E3 interest stats". Joystiq. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  18. ↑ Jesse Divnich (May 12, 2010). "The Divnich Debrief: E3 2010: The Most Important Event in Gaming History?". Industry Gamers. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  19. ↑ Will Herring (August 26, 2010). "51% of HD-gen games feature female protagonists". Gamepro. Archived from the original on 2011-12-01. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  20. ↑ "Ten Questions For EEDAR". Forbes. September 16, 2009. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  21. ↑ "America's Most Promising Companies 2009". Forbes. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  22. ↑ James Brightman (September 17, 2009). "EEDAR, Big Stage Honored by Forbes as 'Most Promising Companies'". Industry Gamers. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  23. ↑ Jamie P (June 18, 2010). "E3 Diary - Updated*". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  24. ↑ Kris Graft (February 8, 2012). "DICE 2012: Is the publishing model broken?". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
  25. ↑ "Game Marketing Summit 2013". Retrieved 2013-07-13.
  26. ↑ "EEDAR and Nielsen Collaborate to Deliver Unprecedented Insight into the Marketing of Video Games". PRWeb. February 10, 2009. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  27. ↑ Alexander Sliwinski (November 2, 2009). "Nielsen and EEDAR join forces to provide 'unprecedented' game tracking data". Joystiq. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  28. ↑ Alec Meer (June 15, 2010). "EEDAR and Nielsen offer game marketing analysis". Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  29. ↑ "EEDAR and GameTrailers announce partnership to deliver insights on the impact of video game media on marketing". Gonintendo.com. February 17, 2009. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  30. ↑ "EEDAR and GameTrailers.com Announce Partnership to Deliver Insights on the Impact of Video Game Media on Marketing". PRWeb. February 17, 2009. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  31. ↑ "About EEDAR page". Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  32. ↑ "Rentrak's Video Game Ad Monitor Data to Augment Marketing Campaign Analysis Via EEDAR's GamePulse Service". Portland, OR: Rentrak. December 16, 2009. Retrieved 11/8/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  33. ↑ "EEDAR Launches New Mobile and Social Game Research Services". March 25, 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
  34. ↑ "Market Track FeatureVision Data Coming To GamePulse". March 21, 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-13.