hi,

we are talking to a promotions company about releasing a game to Steam and to mobile platforms (iOS / Android).

They are suggesting that we should wade through Steam's Greenlight process before releasing the game to mobile.

Is this true ?

Can't we release the game to Mobile while waiting for the Greenlight to happen ?

If the game is finished I don't know why you would wait to release on mobile. Releasing to mobile first might even drum up interest in greenlight for you. I don't see releasing to mobile first hurting in any way.

A "promotions company"? You are paying them, right? So their advice, especially if they have no experience in games, does not have to be followed to the letter. There's no reason they can't market your game no matter which platform you release on first.

DerekL, thank you !

You are paying them, right?

Thank you.
Yes, they charge several thousand $$ for their release PR services, and have experience with multiple games released on Steam and to mobile.

I couldn't find anyone else on the web supporting this suggestion from them...

I assume they're suggesting a simultaneous release on both steam and mobile.
The benefet would be that any advertising campaign will then be relevant to both SKUs.

they ... have experience with multiple games released on Steam and to mobile.

I assume they're suggesting a simultaneous release on both steam and mobile.
The benefet would be that any advertising campaign will then be relevant to both SKUs.

Given the above, please disregard my previous reply. I support what Hodgman said.

Thank you both.

Will contact them again to get a clearer understanding of their plan.

I don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a botched job. :)

They said:

"it's better to wait until you're greenlit, preferably out on Early

Access, before releasing on mobile".

That would add many months of waiting,,, and I don't see any benefit to their strategy.

So I'm having second-thoughts about hiring them (this isn't my first reservation about them).

Are there any threads on this forum with recommendations for gaming PR companies ?

I want to look elsewhere.

Did you ask them what the benefit of waiting was?

The benefet would be that any advertising campaign will then be relevant to both SKUs.

Would you not benefit from the marketing even if the game was already released in this case for both skews.

Maybe shop around and get quotes and ideas from multiple companies before deciding. I have never worked with any marketing companies so I really wouldn't know of any good ones but a quick google search gave me this list.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/resourceconnection/gaming-marketing/

You would have to do further research to find a good one but I think its a good starting point.

Would you not benefit from the marketing even if the game was already released in this case for both skews.

In practice it doesn't usually work that way.

Imagine a major AAA game like that: "Coming to you in June for PC, August for XBox, and November for PS4."

Instead you get something like: "Preorder today to play on June 25."

If you market each one individually, you weaken your ad campaign. Now instead of one big ad blitz, you've got three major ad campaigns. And due to the way the hit-driven advertising model works, where the companies need to recover the costs within the first weeks or never at all, that means you want to have a single, large, comprehensive ad campaign. It is similar with the big budget movies where their opening weekend defines success or failure, not the potential years of licensing the movie out.

That isn't to say that alternate paths don't work. Many niche and independent games play the longer tail rather than the opening surge. But it doesn't look like that is what the original poster wrote about.