GamesAnalytics Recruits Activision Co-Founder Alan Miller

GamesAnalytics, a datamining and monetization firm targeting online games, announced that it's brought in Activision co-founder Alan Miller as a strategic advisor and director of its North American operations. Starting his game industry career with Atari by developing titles like Hangman and Basketball for the 2600, Miller helped establish Activision in 1979 with David Crane, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan, serving as product development VP there. He also co-founded Accolade in 1984, where he was eventually chairman and CEO. GamesAnalytics opened last year and is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The firm seeks to help MMO, social game, and virtual world publishers maximize their online game revenues through "behavioral analytics and individualy targeted in-game marketing". The start-up claims its products can increase ARPU, player retention, and the number of paying players. "Alan is a great addition to the team. His decades of experience in the games industry are incredibly valuable to us in our work for leading online game publishers," says GamesAnalytics CEO Chris Wright. He adds, "Alan understands the great value that our products can add by data mining the massive amounts of player information stored by online game publishers, especially in free-to-play Facebook games, MMO's, and virtual worlds that generate revenue from the purchase of virtual goods."