The Stories Told By Numbers

Ever wondered what makes a video game successful? Beyond cutting-edge graphics and immersive design there is an immense amount of data and complex algorithms. They are used to improve gameplay, help developers fully understand players and tailor the game experience to their expectations. As a leader in the video game industry both locally and worldwide, Electronic Arts Romania is a champion of player satisfaction.  

One particular department carries a lot of responsibility in that aspect, and that’s the EA Analytics department, a place where data-driven observations have a global impact. Since the first analyst joined the EA Romania team 10 years ago, the Analytics department has grown at a rapid pace to solve the complex challenges of building world-class gaming experiences.  Now, there are three main groups under the Analytics umbrella: Consumer Insights, Quality Verification, and Studio Analytics & Games Portfolio Analytics. Each speciality group helps us make informed decisions that support game quality. It’s their unique insights that we rely on when developing next-gen experiences. Our players expect well-optimized games that are constantly updated based on community feedback, which means our analysts have a critical role in ensuring the success of our games. Ever considered just how much information is needed to tailor a game to a player’s desires and needs, as well as adjusting their experience when playing with friends?

Really, it’s more than a numbers game

Although it may appear like that when it comes to popular games, anyone who works with data knows that success isn’t just a numbers game. It’s about getting targeted insights that help you achieve your goals - and having the wisdom to decide which information is actionable. At Electronic Arts Romania, having deep insight into player behavior and needs is what enables us to deliver excellence - and sifting through incredible amounts of data is how we stay at the forefront of innovation. For user telemetry data, which tracks in-game events and interactions, 1 million daily active users could generate around 150 gigabytes of data per day - and our player network size is over 650 million.

It’s a lot, and these are just some of the signals monitored and examined by our analysts to ensure player satisfaction. To generate meaningful insights, they look at the numbers from all angles and always try to understand the needs of the player who generated that data. What drives people to spend hours and hours inside an immersive experience? How can developers stop cheaters from creating an unfair environment? Our EA analytics experts are tasked with preparing game teams for the future of gaming and delivering crucial insights that allow them to tailor experiences. 

Can figures paint a picture?

We use data from internal and external sources to provide insight to decision-makers, delivering a wide range of in-depth player behavior analyses, as well as descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive business analyses. Our analysts work on complex business problems, identifying trends and constructing forecasts and tactical strategies to better address players' needs. 

This is a role not limited to a single department. Once an opportunity is identified, an analyst will lead cross-functional teams as well in order to inform business decisions and measure game health. A part of our Studio Data & Insights department, the Quality Verification Studio Analytics Standards team works on data and research from multiple sources, to differentiate the type of work being done by the teams. They guide the quality verification teams with data and business insights, building various reports and models for hypothesis testing, presenting their conclusions through data visualizations tools, such as Power BI and Looker. By making use of these data interpretations, models, and trends, they become one the main game quality drivers.

Here at Electronic Arts Romania, we also strive to be the best-in-class AI team in the gaming industry. This is where our Studios Data & Insights comes in. By using data science, statistics, and industry staples like Python and R, we offer autonomous analytics to the rest of our teams, building AI-driven solutions to better connect with our players worldwide. We achieve this with cutting-edge machine learning and AI to give our game creators the information they need, exactly when they need it to enrich our interactive experiences.

And ultimately, our Data Analysts increase player satisfaction.

It all adds up to a rewarding career path

If you love delving behind the scenes to see what makes something tick and also love Excel, the Electronic Arts Analytics team can add incredible value to your career. Having to fire up Excel isn’t the main activity, though! Most of the work revolves around SQL as a main querying language. We also use NoSQL databases like Elastic Search and you can find us running queries in DBeaver or using Jenkins and Gitlab. For reporting, our main tools are Power BI from Microsoft and Looker, which let us build and share insights. As a diverse, creative and collaborative company, we strive to nurture potential by helping our people develop both their soft and technical skills. 

In addition to offering you educational platforms, mentorship opportunities and event access, you’ll also receive one of the most comprehensive and competitive benefits packages in the tech industry, where employees are also shareholders. We're a company that delivers the joy of play to the world but internally as well. Our culture reflects our commitment to wellbeing, with free games, fitness subscriptions and mental health support, just to name a few of our benefits.

Is Electronic Arts Romania a place you can see yourself and grow? Here are our openings, you do the math!   

   *Source: Vertica whitepaper