Archive for the ‘Gaming Industry’ Category

Everyone at Rogue Counsel “grew up in” a large, fairly traditional PR agency environment – our founders, our part-timers, our freelancers – everyone. We put in the (wo)man hours, have the contacts, got the experience, understand the business, and we get the big idea.

With that being said, indie developers are our specialty because we can relate. If you (Bob, the talented indie) wanted to work for a big brand, you could – and you would – but you don’t. Why? Because you’re passionate about doing your own thing on your own terms, and you got tired with the politics of “no”…

Ditto, Bob. We won’t expound, but could.

Indie game PR is unique. When you’re working with an established brand and/or franchise, you’ve got an automatic “in” with most major enthusiast outlets. When you’re an independent start-up making your dream game ’cause you feel like other people would want to play it, it’s a little bit tougher a whole different ballgame convincing press to cover your project.

There, there. It’s not that your game’s not newsworthy, it’s just that your game is one of hundreds of others, and picking out which ones to cover can be like picking a flavor at Froyo (or finding a needle in a haystack) – the metaphor matters not. What does matter is finding the right PR team to tackle your unique challenges… Gaming PR is not one-size-fits-all. Case in point: MontrealX.

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MontrealX_logoIn partnership with the Quebec Government Office in New York and Alliance Numerique, Rogue Counsel is pleased to announce the first-ever event in NYC specifically focused on Montreal’s burgeoning indie gaming community.

MontrealX on December 4th in the Quebec Government’s Rockefeller Center office will spotlight 10 indie studios from Montreal, with developers traveling to the city to demo upcoming and recently launched indie titles, hold a panel discussion about the gaming industry in Montreal and have some superb Quebec beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres.

We’ll kick off at 3pm and wrap up by 7pm. If you’re a publisher or member of the press interested in attending, please contact kate@roguecounsel.com.

Participating studios and games include a roguelike in which you can’t fight your enemies (Subaeria), World War Machine, an action RPG featuring highly customizable and extremely detailed robotic characters, two serious games from Affordance, and more. Check out the full roster:

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PR strategy will make or break a video game launch, so picking the right public relations partner is crucial. Do you need an agency? A consultant? A full-time person in-house? If you’ve never launched a game before (or even if you have), it can be daunting to figure out what you need and how much you’re going to have to spend to get it.

Clearly these types of marketing questions continue – infinitely – so we’re not going to try and answer them all at once. Instead, we’re going to post a series of tips and tricks to help developers and publishers understand PR best practices for the gaming industry. We’d love your feedback in the comments on what information would be most helpful, and we’ll try to answer as many of your questions as possible. For now, a few basics to get the ball rolling…

“I’m launching an iOS game – does the game’s pricing affect PR?”

Yes! While the free-to-play market is still a hot spot for installs, and f2p makes sense as a business model for many games, from a PR perspective, 99 cents is better than free. It’s hard to make your free game a priority when reviewers have so many download codes coming in from paid games. In our experience, that’s even true with big name branded titles, in most cases. Of course there are some exceptions that break through the noise, but if you’re an indie iOS developer releasing your first game (or in a similar situation), almost always our recommendation is to charge at least 99 cents, at least for the first few weeks. Rogue Counsel insists on reviewing our iOS clients’ games ahead of time to develop an informed strategy, so if your game IS one of the rare cases where price doesn’t matter, we will let you know. And we will be stoked to help you make lots of money with great PR.

“How long in advance should I contact PR agencies for my upcoming game launch campaign?”

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