The Final Boss
Every month an industry leader wraps up MCV/DEVELOP with their unique insight
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY?
I fell into it. I was on a placement year at a large entertainment PR company and had originally been placed in the personal PR department (which was cool, it was PR for celebrities), but I wasn’t getting paid. Fortunately, the games department took me in AND paid me! I have Gareth Williams to thank for that back in 2016. I’ve been in games PR ever since.
Charlotte Reynoldson, PR Director at Honest PR
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT? I’m so proud to be 1/5 of the core Honest team, who are some of the most hard-working people I have ever known, and for us to have won the MCV/DEVELOP award for PR Agency of the Year was incredibly touching. It’s a real honour to be a part of the games industry, especially now, given the current climate. I’m thankful every day to be a small part in an industry that brings so much joy and is an escape from the real world for so many people, and I can’t quite believe I’ve worked my way up to being a PR Director.
WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE?
The most important thing for me is to help and guide upcoming and new PRs. One day I’ll be too old for all this (already feeling that now at 30 years old, ha!) but I’d like to hand over the ways of how I PR to the next generation and for it to be passed on and on. It’s a long way off, but if I can retire knowing I’ve passed on as much knowledge from my experiences that I can and it’s made people happy and successful, I’ve won.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN GAMES PR RIGHT NOW? It’s upsetting to see so many talented journalists lose their job due to redundancies, and we as PRs know the strain that’s having on editorial
54 | MCV/DEVELOP October/November 2025
teams, so cutting through the noise is getting harder. I recently saw a LinkedIn post by a journalist who said he gets 150-200 press releases a day, which is bonkers.
HOW ARE YOU TAKING THOSE CHALLENGES ON? Taking the extra time to do real due diligence on who is likely to cover what due to what they’ve previously written about, what their own interests are and their position on an editorial team. It’s extra work (that should be carried out anyway), but so often press releases are fire- and-forget mail blasts. Creating a personalised mail to engage with the person you’re pitching makes such a difference, and even minor details like making sure there isn’t unnecessary punctuation or capital letters in subject headers that are likely to trigger spam filters. Press are also getting followed up three, even four times on a press release they’ve been sent, and often it’s not because they missed it, they saw it, and it wasn’t relevant, or interesting, or they simply didn’t have the time. Offering something more than what is already on offer is more likely to result in something. That can be as simple as extra assets, an interview, b-roll etc.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHANGE ABOUT VIDEO GAMES IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS?
I would like to see safer environments and conditions for women and marginalised folks, both online and at events. There are still far too many incidents happening that could be easily avoided, and I hope that events and employers will start to take them more seriously and introduce strategies to mitigate risks and reprimand offenders. It’s a lot better than it was, but it’s a small industry, and everyone talks, so surely we can also be doing more collectively to make lasting changes in that area.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
