PC content update community GamesShadow is launching the GameShadow Metrics Service, which the Oxford-based company says delivers real-time data on players' hardware, software and playing habits.
The new Metrics Service is a companion to GameShadow's auto-patching system, which the company says automatically downloads and applies patches, driver updates and extra content for a variety of PC games - the service currently supports some 2600 titles -- to users' PCs.
In the process, says GameShadow, the app also collects data on the hardware and software set-up of users' systems and monitors their play habits, information the company hopes will be useful to developers.
For example, the company's data found that
Call of Duty 4 players "are more likely to play other realistic shooters than more sci-fi ones."
GameShadow Metrics also found that the most popular graphics hardware among its users are Nvidia's Series 8 cards, and that 20 percent of gamers have less than 1GB of RAM.
"In return for providing a great service to our users we can report on how genres or sequels are connected," said Tony Treadwell, GameShadow founder and COO. "We can even track ‘unknown’ versions and review driver hardware.”
"We realized that this level of accurate data is an incredibly valuable marketing tool for publishers, developers, ISVs and hardware vendors to understand gamers’ habits."
