What is LiveOps? — Interview with Vadim Bulatov

What should we understand by LiveOps, what tasks does this discipline solve, and why is it important not to confuse it with game operations? The editorial team of App2Top discussed these and many other topics with Vadim Bulatov, the author of the course "LiveOps in Games."

Alexander Semenov, App2Top: Vadim, hi! Let's start with the basics: what is LiveOps in game development?

Vadim Bulatov

Vadim Bulatov: LiveOps in game development is the organization of time-limited game activities to retain players and increase revenue.

Some gaming companies practice what is known as advanced LiveOps, which is managing a personalized player experience in real time.

Are we talking about configuring offers and prices based on prior behavior or something else?

Bulatov: Yes, configuring offers and — importantly — events based on player behavior.

For example, active players receive more events, and paying players get more expensive offers.

Organization, management, and configuration are quite general concepts. Specifically, what tasks are usually assigned to LiveOps specialists?

Bulatov: The range of tasks is indeed broad. Here are the main tasks listed:

• creating event schedules;
• organizing A/B tests;
• conducting real-time analytics of ongoing activities;
• delivering changes to the server configuration.

Often, LiveOps managers also handle monetization. Sometimes, game design functions, such as feature ownership and event balance calculations, fall under LiveOps.

So, is the role of a LiveOps specialist something at the intersection of account management, analytics, and product marketing with a dash of game design?

Bulatov: It's more about game design for certain features combined with analytics and QA, without the marketing aspect.

What components are typically included in LiveOps when viewed as a discipline?

Bulatov: I usually view LiveOps through four lenses:

• product;
• game design;
• analytics;
• QA.

When I teach LiveOps, I divide the program into these four blocks:

• In the product block, I consider all game activities (events, offers, content updates) as revenue drivers;
• The game design block covers economic models of events, creating event balances and offers, and preparing documentation;
• In analytics, I explain how to conduct A/B tests and organize analytics;
• The QA block deals with the technical aspects related to managing server configurations.

When we talk about a LiveOps specialist, should they be able to work with all these components? Or are there no generalists in the niche, and are live operations handled by teams with specialists of different profiles?

Bulatov: The outlined lenses usually come down to the product (working with activities) and technical sides (configurations setup, testing, and changes delivery).

In LiveOps teams, typically some specialists handle the product side, while others focus on the technical side.

Nevertheless, there are versatile specialists capable of overseeing the entire LiveOps process themselves.

As far as I know, programmers are sometimes considered part of LiveOps, responsible for server operations, loads, and so on. Is that not the case? Or is this practice not very common?

Bulatov: It's more accurate to consider them part of the delivery unit.

What knowledge should those interested in LiveOps possess?

Bulatov: First and foremost, knowledge of product management, particularly experience in managing changes within a product. Such individuals already have the core competencies: game design, analytics, QA.

Are there more basic requirements, perhaps foundational subjects taught in universities?

Bulatov: Microeconomics, statistics, analytics, product management.

A little expanding on the previous two questions: what background do such specialists typically have, and where do they come from?

Bulatov: Usually, LiveOps specialists come from:

• product managers who prefer giving games a second breath via operations rather than launching new titles;
• game designers willing to stifle their creative side (killing their "inner Kojima," so to speak);
• analysts or QA managers who actively play and spend money on free-to-play games.

People without game development experience also enter the field, often with a background in economics.

There is a concept called GaaS, often equated with operations. Can we say that mentioning "operations" directly implies live operations?

Bulatov: Operations is a much broader concept, encompassing, besides LiveOps, marketing, support, and delivery.

In a successful game service, LiveOps will always be an important part of operations, as it addresses the question: where's the money?

Despite live operations existing since the early MMOs, the term only became widely used in the game industry after 2019-2020. Why was it needed, considering many tasks handled by LiveOps specialists today were previously managed by other departments?

Bulatov: In Wargaming, since 2011, there was a structure specifically focused on operations. They even had an events department within the game client. I thought it was the norm, but it was an exception, ahead of its time. Back then, most companies had game designers handle online game activities if they had time, sometimes even programmers.

When most teams earning from game services realized that their major revenue came from players who engage for years, they started forming separate LiveOps divisions.

Casual game developers realized that the main update generating revenue wasn't 100 new levels at the end of the game but rather events like a Halloween event, around 2018-2019.

Additionally, games became more technically advanced during this time.

Another significant factor was the increased role of UA analytics. Becoming a revenue growth driver for games in the early 2010s, it accelerated data processing and expanded possibilities for segmentation and personalization.

As a result, modern LiveOps involves managing a personalized player experience in real time, not just working with outdated data.

Incidentally, I've encountered different interpretations of LiveOps across companies. Sometimes even within the same company, the understanding can vary from one department to another. What do you associate with this confusion?

Bulatov: As I mentioned, LiveOps has two sides: product and technical. Sometimes LiveOps refers to only one of these, or both.

LiveOps can also be associated with different monetization structures. Monetization governs the offering of in-game values, while LiveOps drive the demand for these values by organizing time-limited activities.

If you see an activity with a timer that boosts demand for in-game values, then the people who design, plan, launch, analyze, and improve it are LiveOps specialists, regardless of what they are called in the company.

And the final question, more focused on processes: when does a LiveOps specialist engage in a project? After release, or should they collaborate with game designers on the event pipeline during production?

Bulatov: Of course, they join the project before release.

Even before early access, the future system for delivering LiveOps changes, influencing mechanisms, A/B testing structures, segmentation systems, and structures for offers and events should be designed. It will be painful to do this post-release.

Great, thank you for the interview.