A SCOTTISH technology company is launching a new platform to analyse data from apps and games in real time.
GamesAnalytics, which is also rebranding to deltaDNA to reflect the name of the new system, believes it can help publishers and developers to more accurately monitor the behaviour of players and respond to trends quickly.
That is expected to improve the retention of customers as well as encouraging more of them to spend money while playing.
Many software developers now release games and applications for free to attract a wider user base then charge for additional content or features.
Mark Robinson, chief executive of deltaDNA, said: "The consulting work we have done up until now has gone into shaping the toolkit to be what publishers and developers need to understand players and personalise the game environment."
The system includes various resources to track behaviour as well as functions which help the publishers to personalise the experience of each customer.
Mr Robinson said: "The system interacts with the players in real time to improve the experience.
"So if people are running out of resource we can gift that or if they are not understanding the tutorial we can give further support. If a mission is too challenging we can give them a bigger sword or something to get them through it.
"We are trying to be responsive to the players to see when the experience is not as good as it could be. We see this as [the industry] moving from monitoring how the game is doing to actually taking the implication of that through to understanding players and personalising the experience with them."
The Edinburgh business, founded in 2010, is formally unveiling its product at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco later this month. However a soft launch has been running for the past few weeks with around 30 clients already signed up.
DeltaDNA is offering the basic product for free with a sliding scale of payments depending on how much data gets generated.
Mr Robinson is confident the company can benefit from the growth of free-to-play online games across devices from smartphones to consoles such as the PS4 and Xbox One. It is also working with clients in the social casino and real money gambling arenas.
Alongside that it has a number of projects on general mobile device apps particularly in the entertainment sector.
Mr Robinson said: "The concept of personalisation works well across those areas."
In July last year GamesAnalytics secured £862,000 of investment from Par Equity, STV and the Scottish Co-investment Fund, which has helped to boost staff numbers from 12 to 24.
Mr Robinson confirmed a further funding round was planned this year although it is still at the early stages.
He said the previous investors remain supportive and added: "What we have done since the funding is to dramatically accelerate our product development. .
"The next part of the journey is to substantially increase the sales and marketing reach of the business. Forty per cent of our revenues come from the UK, 40% for Europe and Russia and 20% from the US so there is a massive opportunity internationally for us to reach into the market."
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