he existence of the gaming press is constantly being questioned about the need for its existence. After all, it is often a practice that currently boils down to reproducing information from other companies that have already found a way to spread their news on the internet, such as Nintendo Direct, Nintendo, and State of Play, from Sony.
The exercise of such a function, in fact, is very similar to the agendas practiced by cultural journalism, which instead of going after social phenomena relevant to its editorship, ends up being limited to carrying out information and analysis that are often superficial about its cover objects. From this point of view, it is as if the journalistic press were a kind of outsourced public relations, as they are often content-producing vehicles that are simply based on disseminating information from third-party companies.
As a trained journalist and working with GamePlan, I had the opportunity to be on both sides of this equation and I can say: indie developer, game press is your best friend. Furthermore, this post so far is mainly for you, developer.
We are in the 21st century, in an era of full digital convergence, and the public today consumes and trusts their favorite influencers much more than more traditional media outlets — this to the point where game journalism can be considered “traditional ”. From a practical and objective point of view, it can be rewarding to use such virtual personalities, given the ever-wider audiences they can reach.
However, it is necessary to take into account the costs. I’m not even saying cost-effective, since a well-orchestrated action in this aspect can make the project sell itself almost on its own, but in relation to gross cost. An independent studio, as is the reality of a considerable number of Brazilian developers, cannot count on enough funds for a wide-ranging influencer to promote their project.
In this case, it is also taken into account that they operate in this way. The content produced is practically made to order. The press, on the other hand, is not. They generally have a dissemination role intrinsic to their existence. While the influencers are you who want them to produce something about your project, with the press the relationship is opposite and they are the ones who crave information, news, to make the news. The advertising cost, then, is infinitely lower.
Establishing a good relationship with the press is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to publicize your game. It may seem difficult — or rather, it doesn’t just seem, it’s actually quite complicated — to get an IGN Brazil right off the bat, but there are a number of vehicles of considerable reach that could be tried as a way to publicize your project, such as Combo Infinito , Game Drops or Critical Hits. Several vehicles publishing about your game serve to legitimize and expand the game’s presence on the internet, better indexing for more objective results in a Google search, for example.
The Brazilian developer’s main asset is that the national press loves a product made within its own territory. Of course, you will most likely receive the “Brazilian indie” label in any and all mentions of it, but it still ends up serving as publicity and helping to create an engaged BR community. Despite sometimes sounding negative, a quality product or, at the very least, identity, eventually manages to overcome this stigma.
Thus, it is important to think of marketing strategies that can involve this type of offline media in their scope. Therefore, it is essential to have a good mailing list that can reach important names in Brazilian games journalism, as well as the maintenance of the relationship between the producer and the press through good press releases that can stir the interest of vehicles to publish more about it to the point of eventually getting to the point of being asked to do interviews, for example. But that’s a matter for another day.
