The enormous energy put into announcing games, versus the energy put into the follow up is astonishing. The idea that anyone could think that SGF was some kind of goal or end game rather than the start of an uphill struggle is mind-blowing.
I’ve spent (checks notes) 30 years in videogames media. It started simple, but now there are more ways than ever to talk to your audiences. Revealing your games is firing the starting gun. It isn’t the actual race. I worry that the grind of talking to audiences gets replaced by the thrill of the announcement.
I decided to do some research to see if I was imagining it. To give me some comfort or wind myself up more. I looked at 148 games announced at the major showcases around Summer Game Fest. Around a third of them were missing at least one of the foundational steps of post announcement marketing.
I am obsessed with building better media experiences for players and it feels like publishers are missing tricks. There are three things publishers and developers should do around their game announcements.
With so much focus on the first trailer I worry that building a destination, giving sharable content to your audience, and talking with players gets forgotten.
Here’s what I think game makers need to do…
1. Build a web landing page
A website. I know this sounds very 2000s. A destination distinct from your Steam, PSN, XBOX, or Switch pages. And all your social pages. If you want to steer players towards the correct pre-order or purchase and start to capture some data on audiences who may be interested, then a website is super handy.
You can cookie people, grab email addresses, and drive to the right store and social pages. Beyond just players you can also tell creators how to get involved and store a bunch of game images and assets for media.
You can’t do any of that on a Steam page… it’s just a cluster of links at the bottom right of the page. All of your communications should feature a website address. Oh and you did remember to register a good URL for your game right. Right? And maybe you even got a site live early enough so that your content is returned on search rather than a random third party.
Web destinations could be just a holding page with a linktree. Or maybe something beautiful like this award-winning website we built for Bradley The Badger.
Of the 148 games we checked that got announced, only 100 had a specific game site or franchise site.
2. Follow up with social first content and gameplay
You made your high impact cinematic trailer. Well done. Did you follow up with social first assets and gameplay demos?
The social assets should not be too complex and they give players a chance to share and celebrate your game on their platform of choice. They can be shorter-form (not a gorgeous 27 minute character trailer!) and show a wider variety of content.
Gameplay assets deserve more attention, since most trailers I watch seem to advertise the genre of game, rather than a game itself.
“Here’s some tanks. Tanks are cool. Not so much why this tank game is cool.”
You need to build confidence. Players want to see what they are getting, and if you build expectations properly they are more likely to convert from wishlist and drop nice user reviews.
So far, only 111 out of 148 games have followed up with any other asset.
3. Establish a Discord for your community
Discord gives you a way to talk every day to your community and in the early days build a super engaged community of fans. It gives you more opportunities to talk to your audience than a Steam wishlist. You want your official Discord to the place players gather. And an early start locks players in. If you leave a vacuum it will be filled by users… if you are lucky.
For tips to see how it’s done, check the Bandai Namco Discord server, built for the launch of Elden Ring. Project N, our game agency, grew the official Discord to over 500k players. Discord is the way gamers talk and you need to be there.
Of the games I checked only 100 of the 148 had their game Discord servers ready.
So, that’s the score. Around two thirds in each case had their act together on launch day. I am seeing that as social proof that these are the right strategies. But also that there is a big gap on the other side. A third of games in each case missing at least one of these foundational steps.
So it’s not all me moaning some studios hit on all three foundations, and you’d be surprised that it wasn’t always big outfits. Two random honorary mentions – Aion 2 from NC hit all the right notes and I love the fact that solo developer BBear had all its geese in a row for the announcement of an Eggstremely Hard Game.
Summer Game Fest is not the finish line. It’s the starting gun.
The best time to build your foundations was before you announced your game.
The second-best time is today.
