One of the pleasures and facilities that modern life has brought to us is being able to get home and conquer planets, battle aliens, play football with Cristiano Ronaldo or even compete against with a friend who is on another continent.
All this possible because of video games.
Already considered by many as the ‘tenth art’, the video gaming industry has influenced both the way new generations interact with each other within an education environment, through the gamification of education, and introduced new narratives for the filmmaking industry to utilise as production companies seek to build on the successes of video game franchises. In addition, the video game market is skyrocketing – data released recently by Newzoo show that in 2017, that Brazil had approximately 66.3 million players, with business share moving around something close to R$ 1.3 billion. These numbers make Brazil the 13th in the global ranking of consumption. By 2018, according to the same survey, there will be 75.7 million gamers who are expected to generate R$ 1.5 billion in revenue.
And this gaming market has traditionally been monopolized by established large video games companies such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, however, in recent years, other big technology companies like Apple and Google have been rising in the rankings due to the gains of their respective app stores and games for smartphones.
These games enable game developers to act faster and more frequently because of low development costs. This cost depends on the size of the game, but some mid-sized games cost between U$ 60K and U$ 120 to be created. Not bad, considering Angry Birds alone brought Rovio, its developer, US$201 million revenue in 2017.
Those who cannot afford regular public relations services can now get in touch with social media influencers to advertise their new product, with YouTube and Twitch content creators becoming loudspeakers for game news.
But despite all the opportunities the video gaming sector presents, without a bespoke PR strategy and plan the benefits of advertising may never be realised, due to the vast size of this industry. A specific niche must be targeted to avoid being lost in the void.
So, what would be the most basic information the market should know about your company or game? Below we have a small guide on how to use all the fun, development and modernity of this billion-dollar gaming industry to excel and make the right PR choices.