ABSTRACT

A comparative study of CRM execution within game

developers. Looking at Epic Games and Ubisoft’s
approach towards retaining customers and providing
recommendations that serve each company’s
weakness.

Service Quality Management

INDIVIDUAL
REPORT
Introduction
This paper will focus on comparing two game developers’ customer relationship management
(CRM) and their efforts in retaining customers. The two organizations are; Epic Games, and Ubisoft. Epic
Games was founded in 1991, headquartered in North Carolina, USA (Epic Games, 2020). On the other
hand, Ubisoft is a French game developer founded in 1986 (CBS Interactive Inc, 2020). It is notable that I
have played games developed by both companies.

Overview
Epic Games is widely known for the development of the famous Fortnite game. Fortnite had
gained a total of 12.3 million concurrent players (Loveridge & James, 2020), and a total of 250 million
players registered as of March 2019 ( (Gough & Christina, 2020). Fortnite has truly become a global hit
since its release in late 2017 (GamePedia, 2020). Whereas, Ubisoft is widely known for a couple of games;
Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six Siege, and Far Cry. I would personally say their most famous game is
Assassin’s Creed where players get to experience past historical events and live the story through one/two
main characters.

Epic Games’ CRM

Looking at Epic Games’ CRM approach, Epic Games provides around-the-clock customer support
through emails. My experience was regarding an issue with a faulty email registered to my game account.
Epic Games’ support team was more than helpful in helping me secure my account in a timely manner. In
addition, Epic Games’ store provides monthly deals and sales on other games (Fortnite is for free) that
players may be keen to try. Epic Games also sends various Emails to players for deals, promotions, and
other sales reasons. One unique aspect within Epic Games’ CRM approach is that every month Fortnite
players would receive an email showing them who is their “favorite partner” based on the time spent
playing with that person – which is really cool. In addition, Epic Games hosts multiple tournaments for the
competitive side of the gamers – last year a 16-year-old won 3 million Dollars. With that said, casual
players are also catered for where they can participate in in-game challenges and gain rewards like
characters and other in-game items.
Ubisoft CRM
On the other hand, Ubisoft has a similar approach to notify players of in-game opportunities, and
other sales. But it seems that Ubisoft is slowing down their emails because personally I haven’t received
emails from Ubisoft in a while. With that said, Ubisoft creates a variety of games to cater for diverse
preferences which is perhaps the most liked aspect of the company.

Comparison of both CRMs

It is evident that gaming companies always push to stay relevant among the dynamic shifts in the
gaming industry. It is also important to note that Epic Games in the past 6 months have stopped
communicating with their gamer-base during any changes or updates – which is causing a major problem
within the community. With that said, Epic Games is the first to ever host a live concert in-game with
fantastic execution, organization, and animation. This concert gained 12 million live players and a lot of
positive feedback with regards to executing a well-planned project (BBC News, 2020). Whereas, Ubisoft
caters to their gamer-base by providing continuous updates and more parts to their games.

Recommendation & Conclusion

All in all, both game developers are widely known and widely successful. Nevertheless,
communication with the players is vital. Epic Games is starting to lose important content creators because
of the lack of communication with regards to planned changes in the game. On the other hand, Ubisoft
seems to go through a slow-down with regards to mass communication. My advice for both game
developers to retain their customers are; Epic Games needs to connect back with their players and involve
them during any changes (like how they used to do previously). Also, Ubisoft needs to continue their mass
communication through emails that portray deals, promotions, and many more opportunities for players.
This is because gamers stick with a game when developers cater for them, and not the other way around.
Catering for gamers can take many shapes and forms, both game developers need to focus on creating a
communication channel with gamers to ensure satisfaction throughout the game lifecycle.
References
BBC News. (2020, April 24). Fortnite's Travis Scott virtual concert watched by millions. Retrieved from BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52410647

CBS Interactive Inc. (2020). Ubisoft Entertainment. Retrieved from Giantbomb:

https://www.giantbomb.com/ubisoft-entertainment/3010-82/

Epic Games. (2020). Company. Retrieved from Epic Games: https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-

US/about

GamePedia. (2020). Fortnite Wiki. Retrieved from Gamepedia:

https://fortnite.gamepedia.com/Release_Timeline

Gough, & Christina. (2020, January 20). Number of registered players of Fortnite worldwide 2019.
Retrieved from Statisa: https://www.statista.com/statistics/746230/fortnite-players/

Loveridge, S., & James, F. (2020, April 24). How many people play Fortnite? Is it really as many as people
say? Retrieved from GamesRadar: https://www.gamesradar.com/how-many-people-play-
fortnite/