In the world of action games, there are a number of competitors and products. ER Games is a computer action game development company that has just finished testing a brand-new game which expands on their typical action focus (for the first time, the game is a combination of a action and strategy … but largely competes against strategy games). In contrast to its larger competitors, ER Games has sent out several early demos ofthe game to potential customers to get feedback of the game and to ensure there are no errors within any of the games.

Over the past decade, games developed by small teams of people, rather than by large corporations have had a huge impact on the gaming world. By sending out demos to specific people before the release, ER Games can receive feedback on their game and specifically determine the gaming demographic that may be most interested in their game. They can therefore develop specific advertising targeting these markets.

ER Games founder James Spier spent years as a consultant before founding ER Games. He is a  firm believer in using analytics and data to drive the business. Chaderson believes that the game should be first marketed outside of the US, as data suggests strategy games tend to do better in Asian (namely Japanese) and European markets than US gaming markets.

A consultant ER Games has hired strongly disagrees. In his view, while there is evidence that games do better in Asia than in the US, he believes the game is unique in it’s design and should be released internationally, without using a phased approach.

Besides the game sales data, the team also obtain user and critic review data (critic_score, critic_count, user_score and user_count in the console.txt) from a third party site. The user reviews (user_score) usually came from people who have played the game, while critic reviews (critic_score) were collected through various websites online.

Assignment

The company has hired you to analyze the data and build a model(s) which offers insight into decisions and next steps which the company should take from the following objectives:

- How should ER Games ensure they are in line with the trends ofthe industry?

- Which market besides the US should ER Games target when releasing the game?

- What impact does the changing preferences and demographics of the typical consumer have on the focus of ER Games?

You are expected to analyze the data using the approaches taught in class (Note: You may create some hybrid approaches. For example, applying AB testing based on the KPIs created, or applying classification using proposed KPIs.). As a group you are to decide which methods to use and how to manipulate and analyze the data (you do not need to use all methods).

You are expected to justify the reasons for your decisions in how you’ve analyzed the data (e.g.  why are you using Classification after A/B Testing etc.), as well as reasons for why your models / conclusions are valuable from a business perspective (while using statistics to justify your position).

Your conclusions should explain any key observations and provide a clear vision for decision making.

You are expected to present the following:

1.   7 minutes maximum per presentation with 1-2 minutes of Q/A from class members as well as me after each presentation.

2.   Any number of group members can present.

3. Please remember that each group is presenting the same case.  As such, there is no need for an 'Introduction' slide at the beginning of the presentation.

4.   You should aim to use at least 2 (ideally 3) of the concepts covered in your analysis (Clustering, Classification, Dashboarding, A/B Testing).

Remember - the goal is to be able to explain your insights, conclusions and findings to a business-oriented audience (not necessarily to someone who fully understands data analytics/statistics).  You should be able to explain your positions/decisions and justify how you arrived at your conclusions.

Please remember timing is important.  Be sure to keep your presentation to 7 minutes.