Infinity Ward: Studios must seize control of PR

Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has called on developers to take more control of the marketing of their titles.

In the final part of Develop’s interview with the studio’s creative strategist, Bowling said it was “essential” that developers get a grip on the PR behind their games.

“I don’t think any developer should not have control of how their game is presented or marketed or communicated,” he said, “and they should take control of that a lot, lot more.”

Said Bowling: “It is why I started my Twitter account in the first place. I have direct line to our audience and the press.

He added that taking control of public relations would act as a way of streamlining the hype:

“A benefit of being so close to the gamer, is that you can call bullshit on the really lame shit. Sometimes a marketing idea will come through we just don’t like it.

“For example, recently we launched our new Infinity Ward website, and we were going to send a mass newsletter out to everybody. And it was suggested that we should send in the newsletter a note to pre-order the strategy guide for Modern Warfare 2. And I said no.

“Yeah it would probably sell a few more strategy guides, but we don’t use our newsletter to market to our gamers. We will only e-mail our gamers if it is worth their while. So if a new trailer comes out, they might want to know and we’ll send them that.

“If they want the strategy guide, it is an awesome guide, and they’ll buy it because they want it. Not because we’re advertising it to them. So we draw lines.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bowling discusses the power of Twitter and the feedback loop with consumers.

Read part Two here.
Part One.