The games industry is currently facing no shortage of challenges. Growth has stalled, development costs are impossibly high and the old tricks that were the foundation for success simply aren’t making an impact anymore. Most importantly, the spend required to reach an audience has exploded out of control with IDFA and rising CPIs, meaning that only a small handful of top companies can maintain and scale their reach through marketing. Marketing is no longer a competitive field, as the brand with the most capital can simply drown out competitors.

The industry’s relationship with marketing is broken, caused by major publishers being locked in an endless game of outdoing each other, leading to exponentially larger marketing budgets. Exacerbating this, the effort of major players in the games industry to create the global mega game has pushed development costs to an unsustainable high, leading marketing budgets to balloon in a desperate effort to reduce the risk of not making back the investment. The race to the top has left a destructive wake behind it, creating a make or break economy of spend that alienates smaller developers, indies, and AA productions.

Smaller developers are not only struggling to compete for user attention, but also venture capital, which is already seeing a tightening of belts in response to a volatile market. This in turn means less budget to be able to compete with the largest companies and IPs. Overall, earning awareness is harder than it has ever been.

So, what can they do?

How can developers and publishers challenge the conditions of the market and make an impact? The answer has been with us the whole time; public relations and communications.

There is a misunderstanding surrounding PR that is use cases are limited; a press release here, a game launch announcement there. But if used strategically and effectively, PR can be the edge that allows studios to build an audience, a brand and establish their franchise among the biggest in the industry. Of course, one of the biggest challenges facing businesses looking to invest in PR, is the inability to correlate with marketing metrics such as CPI, and compare spend vs marketing performance.

When competing against marketing spend and game marketplace bias towards bigger established titles, smaller studios will struggle to cut through and make the noise needed to draw the public’s attention. Public relations, on the other hand, is a level playing field. Brand, identity and human storytelling are assets that can supercharge awareness of a studio and its titles, by leveraging media, influencers and numerous other channels to clearly differentiate themselves from the biggest names in the business.

Marketing is designed to drive awareness, but public relations is designed to establish loyalty and build a reputation. High quality trailers, ads, and stunts are temporary fixtures that function to drive hype for a limited period of time, while public relations when deployed strategically is a tool to establish a brand identity that draws users, talent, and investors for years to come.

The core value of PR is to break away from overly corporate messaging, and to speak honestly and respectfully to an audience. Media are independent, critical and challenging, so narratives placed with them are seen as trustworthy and transparent, compared to paid marketing placements. Players are highly conscious of when they are being marketed to, and rarely give much attention to obvious advertisements. However, interviews and thought leadership content that reveals much about a studio and franchise are highly sought after.

Audiences want to know who they are investing in and why. What makes your brand better than the other sources and how do you tap into their interests like no-one else on the market. How can you demonstrate the human talent that makes your studio far more exciting than a fairly faceless billion dollar entity?

Players and investors want to see the passion that drives development, they want to see they are in safe hands. PR isn’t a flash in the pan moment, but must be a sustained drumbeat that develops, advances and grows with confidence. Think of it like a conversation, with each new piece released to the public revealing more and more about your business and goals.

Larian Studios, the studio behind the major success of Baldur’s Gate 3, established themselves as a new industry darling with just this approach. But, to think that this was a process that began and ended with Bauldur’s Gate 3 would be a mistake. Larian, and particularly the studio’s founder Sven Vincke, has developed a reputation not just through excellent game releases, but a long standing and consistent brand. Fiercely independent, trend chasing adverse and consumer focused, Larian’s nearly 30 year history has been signposted with outspoken developer commentary and insight that has created consumer confidence and trust. During the challenging year games has faced, Sven became a dissenting voice against harmful trends in the game industry, challenging studios short term decision making and highlighting Larian’s considered development as the reason for its recent success. Larian’s history and earned trust made them the ideal voice to speak out in a drive that further cemented their strong reputation with their audience, a perfect example of a brand’s identity coming to fruition.

All of this comes from a very considered and highly refined approach to a brand voice. It’s a process created by PR, one that extends far beyond a press release or an announcement. Years of considered media relations, water-tight branding, spokespeople management and more are all part of how public relations have led to this outcome.

The games industry needs PR more than ever, and must better understand its value. Communications has the power to turn your story into the driving force behind your success, and help you find your niche, audience and support you need to make a difference. With the right strategy, it can be the core of how you build an audience, and a brand. Ultimately, driving long-term sustainable success, that can help navigate the rapid fluctuations in marketing performance.

To gain further insight on our view of the ever changing games industry, see our report HERE. We share how brands can tackle challenges head on, as change also brings opportunity.