For those of us on the studio and publisher side of things, we’re
on the cusp of a similar shift I feel, and the benefits of direct-email marketing are becoming more and more relevant. Everybody uses email, of course, but for years the studio and publisher mailing list has felt like a box-ticking exercise rather than a channel being used effectively or innovatively. I see a slew of ‘monthly updates’, syndicated ‘Out now!’ news blasts and sale promotions - which are all absolutely fine, but there’s scope to do so much more. Being in a prospect player’s inbox is a powerful place to be, and
the opportunity should not be squandered. We’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible here, especially when compared to other industries and the ecommerce space. There are those that use it well in games, but they are few and far
between - largely existing in the GaaS space. Ubisoft and Epic (with Fortnite) have always had exceptional email and CRM initiatives, for example, but the indie world has yet to catch up here. It’s not a question of resources, either. Email can be incredibly cost-effective, even at scale. It’s really a matter of commitment and consistency. One-to-one comms can’t go viral, sure, but they can be personlised.
With the correct sign up process or (incentivised) survey in place, a publisher can know the platform, genre or specific game preferences of their players. This allows for the segmentation of messaging, ensuring that the right content is going to the right person and nobody is put off by content not relevant to them. It creates an intimacy of communication that feels more genuine. A well looked after mailing list of 5000 subscribers can easily outperform a social account with 50,000 passive followers, for example. Look after your contacts, and the CTRs speak for themselves.
This intimacy can be taken a step further if the correct hooks
and triggers can be weaved into the games themselves. Here is where outreach can be tailored to a player’s time in the game, reflecting their experience in your worlds. This might allow you to provide an insight into roads not taken in branching narratives, or validate decisions with additional lore not served by the plot itself. Or it could allow you to craft infographics built from stats and figures that paints a picture of the players’s playstyle. This isn’t marketing in any classic sense of the term - this is enriching and expanding the world of a game and spilling it into the inbox. This is something we’re investing heavily in at Pantaloon,
looking at ways to capture interesting player stories, reflect progress and keep players thinking about our games long after the pad has been put down. There is so much more that can be done here. I’m not here to say it’s email or social media, by the way. Any
good comms strategy adopts a blended multi-channel approach to hit different audience buckets, and there’s still huge value to be found in Bluesky and short-form video platforms. What I am saying, though, is that if you’re struggling to get the engagement you once were across your usual haunts, perhaps it’s worth exploring email in more depth? It’s an overlooked channel, and capable of doing much more for you with a comparatively low investment of time and resource. So don’t forget the trusty sword. Just be sure you’ve
sharpened the blade, and know how to wield it effectively; it’s more agile and powerful than you might realise.
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