"At what point do you start promoting an upcoming game? And how does the PR process work?"

Submitted by: Koala

Answered by: Eric Twelker (PR guru, Sierra On-Line)

"Public Relations or publicity in the games industry focuses on the national and international media outlets that cover computer games. These media outlets range from game and computer magazines to radio and television shows, newspapers and trade journals. The job, focusing on the promotion of games and/or individuals (such as game designers), involves supplying product information and early builds of games, touring the designers and early versions of the game to the offices of key media outlets, arranging interviews with members of the development teams and setting up special events (parties, press conferences), among other things.

"Publicity is not advertising, since one does not pay for time or space, and the p.r. manager does not write and submit articles to media outlets (a common belief!). Publicity earns coverage with interesting game content and relevance to the outlet's readers.

"PR campaigns typically begin around 6 months prior to release. Often, an important title will be announced much sooner. A very basic media campaign begins with pitching news stories about the game's development, followed by previews/feature stories/covers (if one is verrrrrrry lucky), reviews, strategy guides, developer profiles, etc.

"Of course, each PR manager has his or her own technique for a successful campaign and each game company has different ideas about what is considered "good press coverage." In the end, if a game is way cool, the press coverage will be as well!"

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