The Successful Game Launch Marketing Strategy
At 1minus1, we’re thrilled when studios come to us for help, whether we’re marketing a small studio’s first indie game, a remastered version of a AAA game, or even helping hugely successful titles break into new markets. Studios that seek us out are passionate about game/s; their development, characters, art, narrative, lore — anything and everything that makes their games unique. But unfortunately, as we know, having a genius game in development is no guarantee of success. Unless it’s Stardew Valley, apparently.
The simple fact is that marketing strategy–and the successful execution thereof–is in many ways as important as a game itself. Many launch failures can be traced back not just to the earlier stages of game promotion, but way, way further back along the line. The seeds of marketing strategy should be sown whilst a game is still in concept.
You launch your game only once. You have one chance for success … and you need to plan for everything you possibly can.
We receive many, many questions asking for advice on how Studios can approach marketing their games. This is not only true for smaller studios that are considering their first game release, but also larger, established studios looking for new ways to get through to new markets/audiences. The range of questions inspired us to put something together — a kind of ‘condensed release plan’, with the hope that creating it might be useful to some of the people/studios in gaming that we speak to, and perhaps those we haven’t.
Here is our recommended framework. We hope it encourages those who read it to start to build their marketing strategy from a very early stage.
Way … way before you launch
Pre-launch work is essential in the world of gaming.
It should be obvious, but many times we have spoken to studios where too little, too late is being done. There are good reasons for this — after all, if a studio is spread thin and resources are not available, even the effort of reaching out to speak to agencies that may be able to help can be too time consuming an endeavour. But here’s the crux of it — if you don’t have a pre-launch plan, you might be better off just not making the game in the first place. Many games have failed for this reason. The only way to avoid it is to bite the bullet and put the time in to either do it yourself, or find the money to pay someone to do it for you.
In many ways, it’s way, way more important than the ‘actual’ launch itself — because if you haven’t done it well, then by the time you get to launch, the damage is already done. It’s not always irrecoverable (certain things that can make a huge difference to a game such as great reviews), but realising a month or two after launch that you aren’t getting the traction you had hoped for is a serious situation that can take a lot of extra budget to try and fix — if it can be fixed at all.
So, be in no doubt that your game’s pre-launch marketing strategy is an absolutely key factor in ensuring its success. Without it, your game is almost certain to fail in a competitive market — and it’s at this point that we remind you that the minimal pre-work carried out for Stardew Valley is the exception, not the norm.
So how soon do you need to kick things off?
The pre-launch strategy is best discussed and agreed–at least in tentative form–right at the beginning of the development of your game. Think that seems ridiculously early? It’s really not. If you are kicking off from a standing start, then the execution should really start an absolute minimum nine months before the intended launch of your game (we write ‘intended’ because dates change, right?).
Do your research
Market research is important to determine the viability of your game and your overall marketing strategy. Many first time game developers look at this too briefly, or worse, ignore it completely. They might not do it because it’s boring, and just want to make their game. And that’s OK — but you have a passion project right there. And in this case you would need to accept that the game being a commercially viable project isn’t really the core objective.
For those that do want to understand more about whether their game will succeed — and how much success it might have, that initial research is essential.
The key things we recommend studios/developers make sure they have looked at are to understand:
- Is there a real market and audience for your game? If so, what is that audience size? What’s the potential for games in this genre and what does this game bring to the party that is different and/or better?
- What games are the main competitors? How successful have those games been, and how did they generate that success?
Conduct a SWOT analysis for your game. Then ask someone you know with experience in gaming to conduct a SWOT analysis of your game — someone that isn’t going to lie to you to make you happy. Then ask your worst enemy to conduct a SWOT analysis ;)
Solicit honest feedback
The point: make sure that what you have is real. Too many dreams have been shattered by well-meaning family members and friends telling you what you want to hear. The same goes for game ideas by forceful personalities in games studios. And some ideas just go way too far when they need shutting down faster. It’s not a failure when that happens, it’s just learning. Move on, do better.
If you present data collected to anyone (and you should do), then try to just distill it down to the most important elements. No novel needed, just a few slides:
- Market research
- Competitive research
- Your game. What is it? Genre/Narrative overview/art style/and … USPs.
Identity USPs
The market is thriving, but it’s also extremely competitive. It isn’t cheap to make games, and your game will compete with everyone from solo indie devs, indie studios all the way to AAA Studios.
You need to find out what your game has that others don’t. This will be vital for Press, Influencers, and all your marketing content and strategy.
Answer the questions:
- Why are you excited about developing and playing your game?
- Why should others be excited too?
- What are the unique features of your game?
Unfortunately, not everyone is interesting from a marketing point of view. If you play your game and can’t think of anything to say about it, that’s a bad sign.
Not all games are good, and not all games are easily marketable for mass success. To ensure a big win, you need to make sure your game — in most cases — has at least:
- Some level of innovation … a hook
- A strong user-centered design
- Strong branding (simple old-school graphics because it had to be? Great — own it, sell it, loads of people love that stuff)
- A strong personality (a sense of fun, a sense of horror, suitable for your genre … or sometimes a mash up — this can be great too).
Profile the target audience
This is even more important if you have a small budget, as you want to market your game only to people who would really be interested in your game. It’s better to reach 1,000 people who 100% like your games then 5,000 people where you don’t really know if they care, and getting them to do so would be expensive and not bring the ROI you need. You need to find out:
- Demographics: Age, Gender, Location, Approx Income
- What genres of games do they play?
- What titles do they already play?
- How to communicate with them?
- What type of influencer do they follow?
- What forums do they use for gaming?
- What social channels do they use to socialise?
Define KPIs
For the sake of the success of your strategy, you need to find out and track what are your objectives and your KPIs for your pre-launch and your launch. This could be:
- Number of pre-orders
- Number of wishlists
- Subscriptions to newsletter
- Number of messages / comments talking about your next release
- Followers on social media …
For example, if you launch your game on Steam, you need to target at least 10,000 wishlists before your launch to ensure a victorious one. This way, Steam’s algorithm will boost your game on the platform.
Set goals, track them and optimise your strategy as you go. The first thing that happens to a plan is that someone or something changes that plan. That’s life. But targets based on KPIs — these should be set in stone. If you lower the numbers, everything else has to be adjusted — and you need to think if the game still makes sense, or if you need to reach out to publishers (probably a good idea but a topic for another article!).
Pricing strategy
Great games are worth paying for. But they can, of course, also be free with in game purchases. What kind of audience do you have? Is it the type that wants free games, or is it the type that will be happy to pay? Demographics and competition come into play here, and your understanding them is key.
Create a price strategy for each of your new games not according to what worked in the past or worked with others- but according to what would work best for this one in particular. Price strategies don’t always work the same way for every game. Take into account:
- Competition prices (generally talking, premium pricing strategies work very well for indie games)
- Intellectual property
- Production costs
- Distribution
- Volume
- And your type of game. If your game is a F2P, the strategy will obviously be very different.
The price of your game will of course be key in your marketing strategy. Several of our clients offer free to play games that make a very healthy return on in game items. And by the way, you don’t have to be trashy to do that.
Look at the market, take advice, do the math. Then do it again after halving your numbers. How healthy is it then?
Content and social media strategy
Once you’ve done your research about the social channels you need to be on, start to plan your social media strategy- both paid and organic- as well as the content you’re gonna post on these channels. The most common important channels and platforms for games to be on are:
- Youtube
- Twitch
- Discord
- Steam (create a profile very early, and optimise constantly your Steam page before launch. More info about Steam page optimisation here.)
- If your audience is on smaller channels and forums, do not neglect them!
- 1minus1 tip: at the moment, Tiktok is great to make buzz for your game for a very low price. Check out our article for more info.
Start with creating your social profiles. Then, discuss and plan the stories you want to share with your future players- about both your Games and Studio- using your USPs. Get influencers, press and future players excited! Generate interest and try to Buzz. At early stage, this could be:
- What you are working on
- Your Studio’s art
- The development process
- Descriptions of what your game will be
These could take different forms: articles, videos, interviews…But do not say too much! Keep some excitement to the Press, later for the second stage, where you will:
- Launch your first trailer
- Post Gameplay Videos
- Hire some influencers to talk about your game
Discuss and plan your content strategy, from teaser trailer to announcement, to launch to gameplay trailer, then to accolades trailer. It’s vital to get your target audience excited, and to generate network effect/word of mouth) that is so important in the world of gaming.
PR and influencer strategy
Traditional online press and bloggers are important in the process if you have a real storyline for your game. Specialised press like Kotaku, IGN, Games Radar, Polygon, Rock Paper Shotgun… Are all worth a try. In addition to your beta version, send them an amazing press kit to optimise your chances of positive feedback, highlighting your USPs and personality.
If you feel that they are not for you, center your strategy around influencers. They are truly valuable as they can create real excitement within the gaming community- either if they are popular or micro influencers. Actually, micro influencers tend to have a better engagement ratio! Don’t discard them.
Choose your influencers carefully, according to their target audience. Platforms like Lurkit can help you to do that. You can ask your chosen influencers to offer small incentives during their Stream.
Give your chosen influencers early access to your game so they can stream it to their followers.
Growing community
Once you’ve found out who is your target audience and where they interact, join the conversation without being too salesy. Create buzz and chat around your game on your chosen channels, forums and relevant chat rooms. Don’t hesitate to fake it till you make it if you have to build a new community from scratch. Reddit is one of the most popular online forums today, but when it started, the founders used fake accounts to simulate engagement and ensure newcomers didn’t enter a ghost town.
You only have one chance to make a good first impression, so don’t waste it. With these pieces in place, you’ll be well on your way to building a thriving community that your team can engage with.
Once you’ve released your beta version, use this community to gather feedback and maximise your game’s polish. Answer any questions and feedback, while generating excitement. Maintain conversation… as these communities will be vital for the word-of-mouth of your game.
Launch
Surprise! This is a small paragraph!
Your launch should be seen only as the final big marketing push of the pre-launch. It’s the accomplishment of this first phase. And a digital marketing fest.
- Announce it on all your channels and sponsor your posts
- Ask influencers to stream it on D-Day (Steam, Twitch…)
- Send an email update to all your subscribers
- Announce it on your landing page
- Run some video ads on social media including great shots of your game
- Optimise your location and pages on the stores (e.g Steam, Epic Store, App Store... Get help for a full release launch visibility on Steam here.)
That’s it. If you did the pre-launch work well and you have an amazing game, your launch should be a success.
Post Launch
Post launch is about making your game’s life cycle as long as possible. Create:
- Cool downloadable content
- Online events about your game
- Maintain your community engaged and entertained on forums and platforms
All this whilst of course, you are maintaining your organic social media strategy.
Conclusion
You launch your game only once. Make sure this is a guaranteed success with your pre-launch, as unfortunately, having only a genius game in development is not enough. With the right planning, organisation, investigation and choice of channels/influencers, there is no reason why your game should fail on the competitive market. Particularly if it’s an innovative one, with a strong personality.
We hope this article will be useful for a wide range of stakeholders of the games industry. Thanks for reading!
Thanks to Daniel Hill from King and Daniel Thorsen from Lurkit for their additional advice.
