Playnomics

Playnomics operated as a predictive analytics and marketing platform specifically tailored for the free-to-play games market. Founded in 2009 by Chethan Ramachandran, John Cheng, and Dick Tsur, the company was established to address the shift in how games were being developed and monetized. The founding team brought together expertise from data mining in finance, information security, and bioinformatics.

The company's core business centered on providing data science and predictive analytics for developers of mobile, social, and browser-based games. It developed a proprietary engine, the PlayScience Engine, and a customer relationship management (CRM) platform called PlayRM. This technology utilized machine learning algorithms to process billions of in-game events from millions of players, allowing it to segment players based on their behavior. By scoring players on metrics like loyalty, intensity, and propensity to spend, Playnomics enabled developers to predict player behavior, such as identifying who was likely to become a paying user or who was at risk of churning. This allowed for targeted, real-time actions, including personalized in-game messages, push notifications, and tailored ad campaigns to different player segments. The business model aimed to help developers monetize a broader spectrum of their player base, beyond the small percentage of high-spending "whales". By 2013, the platform was handling data from over 30 million monthly active players across more than 100 games.

After raising a total of $7.38 million in funding from investors including Vanedge Capital, FirstMark Capital, and XSeed Capital, Playnomics carved out a significant niche. A major milestone was its acquisition by Unity Technologies in April 2014 for an undisclosed amount. This move was part of Unity's broader strategy to expand its services beyond its core game engine and become a comprehensive platform for game developers, integrating Playnomics' analytics and player engagement tools into the Unity Cloud service. Keywords: predictive analytics, game monetization, player retention, free-to-play, F2P, player segmentation, behavioral analytics, CRM for games, in-game marketing, mobile game analytics, Chethan Ramachandran, PlayRM, Unity Technologies acquisition, player lifetime value, churn prediction, data science for games, user acquisition, player engagement, in-game events, ad targeting