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?”
Rogue Counsel 