PR and the Gaming Industry

Once being a thing for just school "nerds" and stay at home teenagers, the video game market is swiftly emerging as one of the fastest expanding and thereby also one of the most profitable section of the entertainment business, with revenues more than three times compared to the electronic home video industry (such as Netflix, HBO etc.). Rapid advances in mobile technology have created an up soar in mobile gaming, even set to overtaking revenue levels of console-based games (Playstation 4, Xbox One, etc.).

This 'small' shift in tendencies and preferences of individuals can cause a much greater shift in the global gaming agencies. Whilst in the past, well established gaming companies were able to make use of their own PR departments, choosing their own preferred way of working and expanding their publicity (keeping it rather 'in house' or working uniquely with gaming specific PR agencies), independent game developers who by no means have similar resources or staff to follow in the footsteps of the giant gaming oligarchs, have to adopt a more 'do it yourself' approach with the PR industry.

The difference in art forms of entertainment between the gaming world and other forms of popular industries, is that the gamers are very actively engaged and keep up to date with news and announcements, either through forums, web pages or magazines. Gaming PR is thereby very distinct from other industry forms of PR, due to the heavily dedicated and passionate 'fan base', requiring a much greater expansion and drive to fulfill the needs, desires and expectations of the fans, and thus bring them together with the game creators.

Hence, things such as product promotion and interaction with the media frequently begin up to 12-18 months in advance of a new release, which is quite different in the 'normal' world of PR, where announcements are very time sensitive.

Thereby, due to the amount of receptive channels in gaming magazines and forums (even 24/7 news updates offered), gaming companies make very frequent announcements about any milestone achieved and always receive coverage.

Alex Theofanopoulos