Continuing our interview with GameSpy Technology's veep and general manager Todd Northcutt, we talk about the future opportunities for console-mobile gaming interoperability, and the company's analytics, metrics and ranking features.

Pocket Gamer: How much interest are you seeing in developers releasing companion apps for their console/PC games that hook into GameSpy services?

Todd Northcutt: Only a handful of games have even attempted it. That's a shame. We're not seeing nearly enough developers do this, regardless of whether they're using our services or not.

On one level, we understand why: the timing and logistics involved in producing a companion app for the sorts of games where these apps makes sense (typically big, sprawling triple-A games that players will invest years in playing) presents a daunting challenge.

This is especially true if they're supposed to be available at game launch. It's hard enough to just make the game, harder still if that game is timed to release in conjunction with the launch of other IP-related media (movies, or the start of a sports season, for example). Throwing in app development on top of that - no one really has the stomach to digest that quite yet.

That said, our services make those hooks possible and easy to establish.

What will probably happen, to sate the demand for these types of ancillary apps, that third parties who specialise in creating ancillary content (think: guides, character build-out utilities, strategy videos, etc.) and who can master their second screen strategy, will start partnering with the developers or publishers and services like us to produce these apps.

If the studios and publishers play along, we'll start to see more of these apps and it will be great for everyone.

Last time we spoke, you talked about GameSpy's focus on providing metrics and monetisation for free-to-play games, so can you reveal anything about your progress in this area?

We currently provide metrics to developers so that they can monitor the performance of their games in conjunction with the use of our services. Our developers can now access a dashboard to check hourly, daily, weekly and monthly active, unique players. They can also check in on player loyalty - repeat session play, and session length.

We have plans to continue to build out these services later on, but felt that ensuring support for platforms such as Android and Unity rightfully deserved our full attention in the near-term.

Monetisation of free-to-play games is not a space that we play in, currently, and it's not on our near-term roadmap. There are other areas - multiplayer, player metrics and rankings, and data storage - where we think we can better serve developers now, based on our experience and their needs.

In mobile, there's less on a focus on multiplayer but more need for things like community, user acquisition and discovery. Does GameSpy have any plans in those areas?

Multiplayer was how we got our start, and it's certainly what we're best known for, but it's only a piece of our overall service offering.

We're very proud that we offer online services - Player Metrics & Rankings and Data Storage - that every game, single- or multi-player, can utilise. Over the past five years, especially, those community-building services have actually comprised the bulk of what motivates developers to work with us.

Our Player Metrics & Rankings service is pretty self-explanatory, it's all about collecting and reporting player stats.

Developers can use it to build simple but always-expected features like leaderboards for their games. They can also use it to go absolutely nuts tracking stats. The service is scalable enough to allow developers to track thousands of data points per player for millions of players, which in turn can power features like stats-rich player profiles, unlocks, or really cool stats-driven meta games.

You can see this service in action in games such as Red Dead Redemption, which provided players with a detailed breakdown of every action they took in every facet of the game - and then reported aggregated stats for the broader game community up to the Rockstar Social Club website.

Cloud Data Storage is a little more nuanced because of its flexibility. Developers can use this service to store both structured and unstructured game data, which makes it ideal for powering features like cloud-based save games, player profiles that are accessible across platforms or between games, screenshot or video galleries, or even playable content storage (examples: maps or mods).

It's become our most popular service because of its flexibility. You can see it in action in games such as Sid Meier's Civilization V, which uses the service extensively to power its mod community, both in-game and via its upload tools for mod creators.

What about user acquisition and discovery?

We absolutely believe there's a future here for a service provider like us who focuses purely on helping game developers solve problems and maximise opportunities.

Discovery, contrary to popular belief, isn't a user problem. Users walk out their front door and trip over 10 awesome games every day. Developers need an efficient way to find a big audience for their games however, and we're anxious to take a crack at solving that problem. We're trying a few experiments now, and we hope to have more to say soon.

Thanks to Todd for his time.

You can read part 1 of the interview - covering the company's Open program for indie and mobile developers - here.

You can also find out more about GameSpy's services here.