Maintaining Good PR in the Video Game Industry is a Must
By Zac Cameron ·
So many have fallen victim to bad publicity after making off-hand comments, as the gaming industry continues to try and grow in the right direction.
Publicity is a fickle thing when you think about it. On the one hand, you want people to be reading and thinking about your game as much as possible, after all, good reviews and word of mouth can make or break a game these days. On the other hand, what can you do when your game or product attracts bad publicity, is there such a thing as no bad press, and how often do we need to see developers and companies make these same mistakes before the industry learns from them.
The most recent example that comes to mind is the furore that arose when developer Neocore Games issued an update regarding the release schedule of their latest product, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr. An off-hand comment at the end of the update post joked that the developers would be working “90+ hour weeks” in order to get the job done, a statement that very quickly blew out of control on twitter, as seen here. While the company was quick to retract that portion of the statement and reassure fans that they were not going to force their developers into some kind of “crunch from hell”, the fact is that the public backlash was immediate and severe online.
Another famous example that springs to mind involves the lead-up to the launch of the Xbox One. While many fans expressed displeasure with the news that the console would need a Kinect to run properly, or that potentially used games would be locked out of the system, the true blow came during an interview with then Xbox chief Don Mattrick from Spike TV, where he off-the-cuff mentions that fans complaining about the internet connection demands of the new Xbox were in luck, as Microsoft very “fortunately has a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360”, a statement that came to be mocked online as an example of a company out of touch with the consumer market.
It seems to be a trend, that some of the biggest backlashes to developers and companies come when an off-hand comment is made that people don’t like. What this means for the future is perhaps very simple, run everything by your PR department before you make any statements regarding your game or product, after all, they’re the ones that will have to deal with the issue.
(cover photo courtesy of GameTrailers)