MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
In the Feb/Mar issue of MCV/DEVELOP we featured our annual PR Panel, bringing together the good, the bad (in a good way) and the beautiful people of games PR to give us their take on what’s been going on in our beloved industry over recent months.
The magazine feature was essentially a “best of”, so to complete the collection here are all the interviews complete and uninterrupted. So far we’ve had Suzanne Panter, Alex Verrey, Mike Hendrixen, and Danielle Woodyatt. Now it’s the turn of Renaissance man Stefano Petrullo.
MCV: What’s been your personal PR highlight of the past 12 months?
Stefano Petrullo: I believe the whole Baldur’s Gate 3 campaign and execution. Developer transparency and communication has been nothing short of glorious. I have always been a strong believer that you have and need to be honest to your audience, be it consumer or media. Owning the message is super important in a world of black and white.
What’s been the biggest comms faux pas and what should’ve been done to avoid it?
I am sad to say this but there is too much rush to report every type of news at the moment. Journalists are not to blame here – it is the system that has to evolve.
Polarisation is one of the worst things that is happening in our society at the moment and leads to extreme opinions. I believe that instead of looking at the disaster, we should explore the problem at its source.
Often the issue is not what is happening but what is being said and, more importantly, what is not said: as communicators we have to ask ourselves how to help the media create a 360-degree media knowledge of the issue so they can express a more balanced opinion.
Redundancies have barely left the news for 18 months. Aside from the loss of talented colleagues, what has been the implication for PR and comms?
There is an element of nervousness for sure. Does the client have money to pay? How can I verify this? Renaissance uses an extremely lean model so we are able to sustain ourselves through any turmoil, if and when it happens. We are also super lucky to have trusted clients we’ve known for years as well as really good new ones.
The other problem is what is happening with such volumes of people in the market? I have conversations with great people that have lost their jobs. I am quite shocked. More freelancers coming out, more agencies open (especially in the UK).
We saw some great games released last year, but the sales numbers didn’t appear to line up with the acclaim. Have there been too many good games? What’s going on?
Discoverability and having too many AAA games was the perfect storm that hit the industry. There is too much content and a market that cannot sustain all of this. We work on all ranges of product from small solo developers indie to AAA and it is evident that something has to change to make sure everyone gets enough visibility.
What I mean by that is that we need more initiatives that are less targeted generally to “gamers” but more to a particular segment of the audience. Niche games are not necessarily small.
We already started to see “genre” related Steam fest. This makes me think and hope for an increased curation for those stores and first parties to elevate and amplify the right product to the right audience. Everyone is a gamer today, but not everyone has enough time to play all the games: More accurate targeting will generate a lower reach but a higher conversion rate.
Are the days Twitter/X (aka Twix?) and mass-email-pitching numbered. What will replace them? AI? What will replace them? AI?
We always use, primarily, our relationship during our campaigns, but I see there are a lot of tools that can be used, including (but not limited to) AI. I tend to be less extreme that others about AI and I can see AI can be used for a greater good with the appropriate regulation in place.
In communication, AI can be used to do certain mechanical jobs and analysis while humans focus on creative ideas, building relationships, and curation. I think in the future we will have three types of people: the ones that will adapt, learn and make intelligent and ethical use of AI, the ones that will try to use AI for quick money and fail, and the ones that will oppose AI 100 percent and risk being the first in line for redundancy.
The major concern here for me is regulation but, rightly or wrongly, I do not believe AI will disappear.
It’s been suggested that ‘information overload and standing out’ are the biggest PR issues right now. Would you agree and how are you attempting to overcome such challenges?
This is indeed what is happening. As an industry we need to always remember we need the media more than the media need us in a campaign. I have an extreme respect for journalists and influencers that work really hard to get the numbers they need and I will always be a big supporter of theirs.
I believe there is an evolving space for media where content is less review but more feature driven and broader in terms of topic. Reviews will continue to exist and have a role.
We also see a lot of journalists launching their own substack / website which drives more bespoke, quality content. Renaissance will keep supporting small and big media and influencers as long as there is relevancy to the products we are promoting. We also actively work with a lot of freelance journalist for the same reasons.
