Episode 6 – Power-Up Your Mobile PR: Conquering the Unique Challenges of PR for Mobile Games

The Games PR Podcast helps you level up your PR skills to get your game noticed by media and influencers. With years of experience working with innovative indies and gaming giants alike, join the Games PR Podcast team and special guests for a wealth of tips and honest advice. From writing pitches and getting Metacritic reviews to avoiding common mistakes and working with influencers, The Games PR Podcast is your personal PR cheat code.

In this episode, we tackle a range of topics from the difficulties in pitching mobile games, how to approach cross-platform titles and the team takes a trip down memory lane to the early days of mobile games. Anyone remember Doodle Jump?!.

Subscribe and listen to the podcast on all your favourite services including Spotify, Podchaser, Amazon Music and more by searching for it or simply find your service of choice right now on Buzzsprout.

Here’s the things we will cover in this episode:

  1. Finding the right audiences on mobile
  2. How to approach the media
  3. Avoiding those easy mistakes

If you would prefer to read – here is the full transcript below

Introduction

Introduction [00:00]

Intro: Welcome to the Games PR Podcast, your regular dose of video game PR goodness. Sit down, relax as our team of experts and special guests share tips and tricks to help you level up your PR game with media and influencers.

Jack: Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of The Games PR Podcast. I’m your host Jack, and I am joined by Tom and Alex, my trusty sidekicks on this adventure. How are you guys doing?

Alex: I’m good and I am Alex! You people have heard Tom more recently so I thought I’d jump in first because you guys have been doing this for… How many episodes have I missed?

Jack: This should be episode six.

Tom: Yes, just the one.

Alex: Oh, just the one, okay. I feel like I’ve missed more.

Tom: We can’t have you out the action for too long.

Alex: Exactly. I think all that maybe I’ve just been re-listening to the one that I missed because it was so much better without me.

Tom: I thought you were going to say just listening to the ones you’re in just as like an ego trip.

[laughter]

Jack: Talk about mobile today. Before we jump in, what were the first few mobile games you remember installing on your phone, because the landscape is much different to how it was. For me, Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja, old classics.

Tom: Doodle Jump. Doodle Jump was the first mobile game I ever played. Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja. Yes, the landscape is so different now. I feel everything was so rudimentary when the first iPod Touch came out, yes.

Alex: I think Rolando was the first game I remember grabbing because everybody was really hype on that. I think it’s that. I can’t even remember what you did in it now, but then the other one that I really remember was a Resident Evil game that looked like Resident Evil 4, but wasn’t. It was also done in an airport, and it was dreadful, and I can’t remember what the subtitle of it was now, but that was on iPhone, like way, way back.

Tom: There was that era of every publisher being like, “Let’s make our console game on mobile and we’ll change barely anything and it won’t work.” I can remember Call of Duty did that with the zombies mode. Everything was like,’It’s like your normal game except it’s about 240p and the sound’s awful, and the controls are terrible too.”

Alex: We squeezed 18 buttons onto the screen. Good luck seeing anything.

Tom: Half the screen is just the controls and it’s just your fingers and then you’re looking at the top path.

Jack: The ever amazing Scott The Woz on YouTube has a really good video of console games on mobile and their mobile games on console as a follow-up. I recommend people checking that out. Just to preface, I was thinking about, I guess smartphone games because the true answer is obviously Snake on your Nokia or equivalent.

Alex: I didn’t have a Nokia, but yes, that’s right. That does go way back.

Tom: I think I had a Sony Ericsson, was that what it was called?

Jack: I had a Sony Ericsson. [laughs]

Tom: That was my first ever phone.

Alex: Yes. I’m so old that it was just an Ericsson when I bought it, [laughs] like a T18 with a little flip-down thing. It was just a piece of plastic covering the buttons. It was like a physical phone lock to stop you from butt-dialing.

Jack: I remember The N-gage was a thing.

Alex: Yes, which had Tomb Raider on it in profile, because that’s the way you want to play video games.

Tom: Wow, it’s kind of come full circle, I guess. Now with the modern mobile,  Mario Kart Tour was a whole big thing of, I can only play this in portrait, this doesn’t make sense.

Alex: You’re absolutely not wrong. I didn’t even realize when I was saying it. Just how far we’ve come and things have changed.

Tom: Nobody liked that though. Did anybody actually like the fact that that was, I was like, “Oh, Mario Kart on phone, it’ll be no. Just like Mario Kart on phone. That’s amazing. Just make a normal Mario Kart game, Nintendo,” and they made a very not normal Mario Kart game.

Alex: I might be wrong about this. Just thinking about the N-gage again, sorry to take this back to that, but I think you had to take out the battery to put a new game in, because it went in by the SIM card. It’s like every time you want to do, you have to dismantle your phone. It was like a slot on top. I worked at Game when that came out. It was a whole thing.

Finding the right audiences on mobile [04:08]

Jack: As we’ve alluded to, I think there’s the whole host of different mobile games, some of them more casual than their console and PC brethren. I think it’s worth talking about audiences of mobile, who that is, who you want to be talking to as a developer playing your game.

Alex: Absolutely. It’s not obviously, as this is going to be talking about PR and it’s not just who’s going to play it. Also who the media are covering as well and how they, in many cases, the very essence of a mobile game makes it more challenging for some media to cover it, which is why they’re resistant to it. On top of, I don’t want to say snobbery, but a general opinion of some people about what mobile games are when it comes to getting them covered in a PR sense.

Tom: There’s definitely like a hesitation from places that aren’t mobile-focused and that obviously stems from maybe where this particular place has been in the past, but that definitely it does exist. We see though nowadays more and more, general sites tend to have, well, more of them now have mobile editors who specifically do cover mobile games, but it’s still that challenge of being able to get to those people and to be able to get placement on those sites when they tend to just cover consoles and PC games.

Jack: I think before we jump into media too much, just to go back to the audiences, because it does follow on to the media. In the UK, a lot of the mobile media seem to be based, obviously, audiences are global and when developers are soft launching, those audiences tend to be Southeast Asia, a huge for mobile gaming, and in some places, mobile gaming is bigger than PC for an audience, it’s more accessible.

I think not only does that affect where the media are looking, but it also means there’s such a sheer volume of mobile games out that mobile media might have their eyes on one or two, but then there’s like 50 other ones trying to do the same thing, competing for those same eyes as the big ones. I think they fall into a few similar genres, or they might even combine. You have elements of strategy, idle, and RPG.

When you are talking to games media, there’s a chance that you’re going to have to work really hard to describe your game in a way that’s different to everything they’ve already seen. I think as Tom, you alluded to earlier, some places will have mobile-specific people, they’re going to be more in tune than the general editor perhaps as to what is really going to be different about your mobile game.

Alex: Yes, and as you said before, the kind of volume and I used to work in mobile journalism, and there’s no way to keep up for a journalist, the number of games that are released daily on mobile is a challenge. Obviously, if you’re PRing your game as an indie developer, on mobile, you’re up against large companies that are in it for the long haul to build that game, and to make a snowball from their product.

They’ve got an SEO value and a value to an audience that people know they’re going to be coming in. They’re going to retain that thing, like we worked with a number of clients who, like they’re putting out updates, and they’re still getting covered everywhere because people know there’s an interest around it. If your game is an unknown, you’re always going to be fighting against that, because you don’t have that momentum behind you to break through that noise and attract an audience in your own right.

Just the reason you need to really get out there and signal boost early and be aware of the market you’re moving into with a mobile game.

Jack: Yes. The SEO is a great point because you can almost count them on one hand, really, the titles that the mobile media are almost guaranteed to cover. If you look at typical sites, Pokémon Go, Clash of Clans, Genshin, AFK, all usually up there, and it’s because they’re the ones the audiences are looking for. You have to really do your research into, if the media is covering these and your game is similar, then that could work in your favor, if you can really explain why they might like it, and what’s different about it compared to the other ones. USPs, as we always say are important, especially here.

Alex: I think maybe the other thing that goes into the differences in audiences, where we haven’t really touched on it is that it’s where you play it, like people are playing mobile games all the time. They’re traveling from place to place, and it’s rare you sit on your couch, to use the old example, and just sit there and play a mobile game. As in you may well but you’ve normally got a TV on in the background and you’re doing something else.

It’s not an immersing experience. People don’t often sink into it to spend hours on it, it’s like 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, that adds up to that. I think that makes it harder to talk about them in the same way. A lot of what gaming is, or at least traditional gaming is kind of like it’s hard to segment up like that.

Tom: A lot of the time, it can be like you were saying like a stop-gap in between doing different things. I feel like we tend to see that when we’re working with games on like mobile platforms, that does come across in the way that they’re designed. As you’re saying, instead of playing like three or four hours of a narrative adventure game on like a PS5, or like on Steam or something like that, it’s a case of 10 minutes between, you’re sat at the bus stop waiting for a bus or you’ve got 10 minutes of free time in between like business calls or something like that. That reflects in the audience and it reflects in the games itself and often in the way that people do cover them.

Alex: That’s why a lot of them are casual, because you can be picked up, put down, but casual doesn’t mean shallow, which I think is where there’s a disconnect by some people looking at it from the outside. Obviously, we’re not generally talking to people on the outside, but the difference is where the depth lies is not in something that’s easily viewable. You’ve got to like sink into the economy, sink into the numbers, sink into what’s going on and how that builds.

This is something I can’t speak to as much what that kind of online community looks like in there because often that’s what keeps people in, that gets them involved, you enter a clan, you’re building that and you are organizing what to do. There’s idle games and there’s like always online RTS style things where it’s like, they’re essentially like Eve-style raid plans on things like you all gang together to make sure you swarm wherever at any given time to get push other clans back and grab territories.

Tom: I was just going to say like really quick on what you were saying, Alex. A lot of the depth won’t necessarily come in the forms of the actual gameplay. The gameplay might in theory be quite simple. It might only be pressing a couple of buttons or it’s in like a turn-based game, it’s easy to actually carry out moves, but the depth comes in the behind-the-scenes stuff of the numbers and things like that because most of the time, they are designed to be quite simple to play, but that doesn’t mean they’re simple to be good at.

Alex: Essentially, when you are saying play there, you mean mechanically to physically do the pressing, but the thought process is still there. They occupy the back of your mind and that can be.

Tom: Yes. As simple controls, maybe that would be a better way to describe it. Like the controls will be simple and–

Alex: Yes. I just don’t want us to come across as schizophrenic, as we’re saying, like it’s really simple to play, but it’s really deep.

Tom: Yes. Simple to control. Hard to play, simple to, because you have a screen, as we were saying earlier, you can’t be having 50 million buttons on an iPhone screen.

How to approach the media with a mobile game [11:30]

Speaker: All of that, I guess, leads into approaches because while the game might be simple to play, it’s not always simple getting into the hands of the media. Even if it is in their hands, it’s not always clear what their goal is. Alex raised a great point before we started about how a lot of these games don’t really have an end. They’re just meant to be continuous. That is a major difference between other forms of games. If a review is a journalist sitting down and playing through their campaign and then looking back at how many hours they spent and the retrospective of that versus how many hours are they supposed to spend on this game before they finish and go, okay, I can start writing this review up.

Alex: That like you’ve got games of service, like Destiny and you’ve got like football games that can go on forever, but you can still pick an endpoint. Like you can see the credits roll in Destiny or you can finish the league at number one in Football Manager.

Tom: I love Alex talking about football. I love his terminology, finishing the league at number one. It’s this like naivety. That’s just beautiful to see. He knows his stuff about games, but when it comes to anything sports games related, it just, it runs away.

Alex: I’ve got no clue. What did I mean, nobody’s yet made my rowing game apart from that, I’m of no use to anyone, but yes, you can put a kind like a pin in it, whereas, I play Fire Emblem Heroes and AFK Arena and arguably you can finish the story in fire emblem heroes, but it’s like ticking over. If you come in now, there’s no way you’re getting to the end in any timely fashion.

Yes, I think that’s the difference of them being like endless, but again, within that actually, and the flip side of this one, we’re talking about media covering it is that even to get into what you call like the real game, which is the social aspect, working out how the economy works, mid maxing that, creating your build, you’ve got to get so far into the game that it’s actually quite a large time sink on any given one of these mobile service games. You’ve got the difference between it being endless, and casual, but also needing to put in a load of time to see the depth.

Jack: Therefore as part of the messaging, you almost have to hint at again what the main features of your game are so the media know what they’re supposed to be looking for or what bits are intended to be spent the most time on. It might be a case of you have to give them in-game code or you boost their account with something, if you really want them to see some of the latter game. Otherwise, each of you could just be focused on the first hour or two. Again, if your game isn’t designed to really get going until a bit later in the campaign, that can affect how it’s perceived.

Alex: Yes. I think having that strong first impression or accelerating people through that, so you can get good hands-on. I think the other thing and we’ve started recommending this internally is that unless there’s a really strong case for it, don’t anticipate reviews. Quite often, we do with that in mind as well is to like give people real pointers, like have that FAQ, those early game tips.

Obviously, the game has a lot of tutorials generally and it can take time to get through that, and then you’re into the open game, but there’s that weird thing where you’ve been handheld to a point and then it’s like, and all this is now yours. Sometimes, it’s some things direct that maybe even those FAQ things you can put together can be turned into guides as well, which is another strong way to approach mobile media to encourage them to make content, because, that something that gives them that quick five tips, things to pull from can be incredibly advantageous all around.

Tom: On things like guides, as opposed to, and even like previews, things like that have more merit, I’d say for both the media and for consumers than these games or it’s really hard to review them because as you’re saying, you can pump a lot of time into them and that’s the only way you really see what’s going on.

Yes, things like guides, people are always looking for guides for things like this or top tips, things like that. It’s quite, on the developer side, it’s quite easy content to make and to like distribute to people, but it can be quite useful. A lot of sites will be quite willing to take content like that on because it’s less of a time sink for them than having to spend loads of time to review a game that is very hard to review because of the nature of it.

Jack: Just like the media update, those articles that might be a case of your game is constantly updating. You’ve seen it with some titles. They may or may not change genre, but they are almost unrecognizable to when they first launched. It makes just as much sense for media to update those simple ongoing articles because if they review a game, that’s then changed so drastically six months in that it’s really not worth them having that article anymore because it’s so different. You have to keep in mind.

Tom: That won’t give a true reflection of what the actual game is. I know it’s not a mobile game, but for me, a really good example of this is something like No Man’s Sky, if you looked at a review for that game when it first came out, that game has changed so much. There’s so many updates and content additions and improvements that have been made, it in no way reflects the actual product that exists now.

Obviously, that’s not a mobile game, but I think the way that game has been developed is similar to what you see in mobile games where you’ve got constant additions going on. Those reviews just aren’t useful anymore. Whereas other content really is because unless they remove those things from the game, a guide for how to do this or how to do that will still be useful.

Should you give media early access to your game and how do you go about doing this? [16:58]

Jack: We touched on it earlier, but I think it’s worth just diving into slightly more again, just for people who may not know this might be their first rodeo as it were, when it comes to mobile, we’ve talked about how do you actually get it in the hands of media because mobile can actually be a lot more complicated than it seems. Chiefly, we’re talking iOS and Android and the differences between.

Alex: We’re talking a lot about these games of service and that’s when it gets difficult because any game of service game tends to be reliant on an active economy, the economy to be at the a point of being finished. You get a full judgment of that. You hear a lot of reviewers being like, we want to see the final product, but you can’t really do that because generally the early launches though, that’s what’s being refined right up until the last minute and often after the last minute, getting that balance down and also the social side, like it would be like jumping into an MMO.

If you haven’t got a clan to join and see all those aspects, you just sat there in an empty world. Especially if you’re inviting a reviewer in, if for some reason, you have to, you’ve had a soft launch, it’s all that kind of thing. You’re in fact, inviting them into a savage environment of people who’ve been playing it all the time with no guidance and like throwing them to the wolves.

It’s not like day one when it launches and all the new people come in and everyone’s starting on the same foot. That’s an interesting and that’s all the challenges of a live service game. Actually getting people into a finished premium game, I think would be the term that the app store uses like paid to get in, everything’s there, that can be shared more easily, like that could be an APK or a test-like build.

It really depends on what game you’ve got as the challenge of getting people in. If you’re doing a live service game, really give some thought as to what you are setting a reviewer up for. If you are giving them that early access because ideally, you do want them in either for a review or for that day one, we’ve been playing it here’s our opinion, but that opinion can be colored by the world you’re putting them in.

Tom: I like that. You said that it’s easy to get people into test flight or like beta builds, in theory, it’s easy. That’s one of those things where, like Jack was saying before, if you have a game on Steam or like any system, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, it’ll be a code. You can give the code to that person. They know where to go to redeem it. It’s very simple. It’s simple for both people.

Whereas I’ve had experiences with things like testflight where you can get it solved in the end, but you can lose a lot of time through back and forth and confirming that people have given you the right emails and that they’re signed up for things. That’s just one of those other challenges where I know we’ve spoken about this on other podcasts but if you are getting people into the game through testflight, it’s good to have as much time as possible because you could spend a week trying to just resolve an issue that someone’s having with getting access to it on testflight.

I’m saying that from experience, because it’s not fun because everyone thinks that they’re not doing anything wrong and oftentimes they’re not, but it’s just one of those tricky things where theory is easy to get people into these games if you want to get them onto it, but it’s good to keep track of things like this.

Jack: Yes. Keeping track and staying in control is incredibly difficult as well if your game is planned for a soft launch.Or it’s gone into soft launch in some regions. It’s always good if the media are interested, but you might not have the control because the media will often just have accounts. They can download the games in the soft launch, and jump on it early. There’s always the risk that you lose the ability to control the narrative as it were, because it’s out there if people want to find it.

Alex: We’ve actually seen confusion of people being like, “But it’s out. But we’ve covered it.” I’m like, “That’s because it’s here, it’s out, but not in America. We were one of the soft launch areas.” Yes, like you say, that leads to confusion. If they feel they’ve covered it already, you might not get them coming round for news at actual launch or what you consider to be the full launch, because it’s not always obvious that you’re in a soft launch area.

Finding the right media and influencers for your game and easy mistakes to avoid [20:55]

Tom: I feel that’s something which we didn’t really touch upon that we can talk about. Just on the topic of just difficulties is the fact that I know we’ve spoken about the general media won’t necessarily cover mobile stuff. Some of them have editors, but even mobile media itself isn’t huge. There’s not loads of established sites that cover exclusively mobile. Even the ones that do, there are some, something like pocket tactics, which they will only cover very small genre of games, obviously, because it’s in the name of the site. It’s that question of being able to navigate through who will cover it? Who will cover it based on genres? Android and iOS as well.

The last thing you want to do is send something that’s an iOS game to people who focus on only Android stuff, because not only will it annoy them maybe, but it’s just a big waste of time.

Alex: Yes, it’s a big waste of time. Also, generally, it’s not not knowing what they are cover, it’s more a silly slip on my part, but it does show that you haven’t done your research and it does make people less inclined, if you intend to work with them again in the future, it’s something that will be remembered. You didn’t really know who they were and that’s why we divide our media list into who covers what where and at some publications, you’ve got the console and PC media, and then occasionally, because a lot of site won’t cover mobile, but some of them are now starting to introduce mobile editors because they are becoming bigger.

I think it’s a weird thing. Sorry, I’m just going to divert slightly, but it’s important. Obviously, you’ve got the games to bridge the gap, Genshin Impact, Pokémon Go and they do get covered everywhere. That leads to a weird blend. It’s like, “But Genshin Impact’s been covered by whoever.” It’s like, “Well, that doesn’t necessarily translate because, obviously, it’s out on Playstation, Pokémon Go is Pokémon.” At that same time, I think what we might be seeing now is that that might be opening up a gap where, “Okay. We’ve got somebody covering those, maybe they could just be the mobile editor.” I don’t know mean just, but they could be the mobile editor and then–

Tom: Maybe they can do more. Maybe our mobile section can be more than just Pokémon and Genshin, disguised as a mobile section.

Jack: Genshin is something we’ve had clients specifically put out as an example. Really it’s because it’s available on other platforms and that is a massive impact on how media perceive your game. If your game is on mobile and PC, there’s a chance they will tend to gravitate towards one side or the other. Usually in favor of PC because it’s more accessible, because it’s a bigger audience.

Alex: In terms of the code they want, yes, but we’ve seen time and again, if you put out a PC game and launch it with mobile, there is an opinion that that’s a mobile game first, and then it makes it harder to land in those places. It’s a balancing act. I guess what I was going off on before, it’s like if you see mobile coverage somewhere, it doesn’t mean they are going to cover a lot of mobile games, and everything we’ve said to this point about the struggles is just amplified by that, and you are competing, you are competing with Pokémon Go and Genshin Impact every day still because they just generate so much interest in and of themselves.

Tom: There’s like the limited media real estate already with mobile stuff, and then you’ve got 99% console, 1% mobile. Then you go into the 1% mobile, and it’s 99% Genshin Impact, Pokémon Go, things like that. Then you’ve got at the 1% of that, and then you’re trying to squeeze into that 1%. It’s hard. It’s hard with media, it’s also hard with influencers. There’s very much a lack of mobile influencers I’d say in terms of, there’s not a lot of people who only play mobile games and of those that do a lot will tend to focus, and it’s getting repetitive, but a lot will tend to focus on the same games. There’s a lot of people who play Pokémon Go. It’s a mobile game but–

Alex: The same games, but not the same games we’ve just talked about, if you see what I mean? Yes, people get really dedicated to either one genre or one specific game, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be Genshin Impact and Pokémon Go. There’s hope that there is more variety out in the world.

Speaker: No, with influencers, they are such a rarity, and a lot of it, again, is just there’s not enough audience interest to sustain an entire channel and brand built around playing mobile, and because most mobile tend to sponsor for paid content, so that’s the difference is, if people are going to play a mobile game, it’s because they’ve been paid to do it. Increasingly, we’re seeing less mobile play-throughs as opposed to mobile games sponsoring a general video or a different game. That’s where mobile tends to play with influencers now. Raid: Shadow Legends is the biggest example there. Part of that is just building the brand based on tons and tons and tons of paid marketing.

Tom: On the subject, we just want to say this podcast is sponsored by.

Alex: Raid: Shadow Legends.

Tom: Not really. That was too good. That was too good. I had to put that in. Most of the mobile influencer stuff will just be paid stuff.

Alex: Bring it back to giving people access and giving people that bump at the start. Be aware of how you’re going to get people stuff, because giving people that early-game exhilaration or the test flight build or everything else we’ve mentioned before, you want to know what process that’s going to be like for you. How easy it is? If you’re going to make an offer to get somebody into the game, make sure when you make that offer, ask for all the information you’re going to need.

Tom: Have an in-game code redemption thing which streamlines the process so much rather than having to account emails or things like that. Just chuck out 12-digit codes at people, just–

Alex: If you can, that if the, yes.

Jack: It’s not just for media. Having those codes, again, is a huge media play. They make that content, they want lists of codes, that’s what gets clicks. If you can have that, the media can use, audiences can enter codes, then everyone wins.

Alex: To give an example of this one mobile site we work with mailed me today asking will they have a code redemption thing? They already have a page. One site we have worked with, already has a page up for a game we work with for code redemption even though it’s not in the game. I had to go back and be like, “No, sorry, that’s not happening with this one, sorry.” Yes, it’s so much of a driver, people create pages to get the SEO bump, even before there’s confirmation it’s going to be there. If you can add it? Add it.

Closing remarks and a few more small tips! [27:25]

Jack: I think that brings us to the end. We’ve covered a lot. Quite a few topics.

Alex: Generally, mobile games come together later because there’s more refinement and once it comes together, you want to get it out. Generally, it’s a shorter pitching time with mobile games. Pitch as easily as you can, work out how to get people into your game, be aware of giving them enough information to accelerate that early game process, and also, as previously said, how to get them in if you’re going to be able to boost that early game for them. You can lift the embargo for review. Perhaps, don’t expect reviews at launch, aim more towards guides and out now maybe impressions coverage.

Tom: We’ve had projects where reviews come in a couple of weeks after a game officially comes out, even if those media have had access to it beforehand because as we’ve said a few times, it can be a process of they want to play 20 hours of something to get a good idea of what they’re dealing with. That might not come straight away, but it will be of a lot more use to people and that’s something that, sometimes it can take a few weeks for things to pop up.

Especially the longer-form content, because reviews are, as someone who has written a lot of reviews, it’s hard work, especially with these games that don’t have an ending necessarily, because you’re playing it and you’re thinking, “When do I stop playing,” because you don’t want to stop playing too early, because you want your opinion to be well researched, but you’re also thinking, “Yes, well, I want this to be out in a timely fashion too.”

Alex: Absolutely, and yes, exactly. You want all those pointers to get people in as much as you can. I think those are the– Oh, and be aware of the influencer issues and the SEO that you’re going to be wrestling against. The closer you can tie yourself to perhaps another game, be aware that mobile, really focus your attention on those places that are dedicated to mobile because while some places will cover them occasionally, putting too much effort into that becomes a real challenge.

Tom: It’s also where the audience is, obviously, but it needs to be said. The people who go to mobile-focused game sites are where the audience is going to be for your game most of the time.

Speaker: The reason for the meme of Raid and a lot of the other popular games is because they do put out a lot of advertising. PR is a great amplification of the message that’s going out. It will make a successful game more successful but do consider and think about what the budget would be for marketing as well, because, again, that is what you’re up against alongside everything else. Get featured on the App Store; that’s amazing too.

Jack: I forgot what I was going to wrap up with, will not be the last mobile episode, I am sure. It’s ever-expanding.

Tom: Just like the games are constantly updating and expanding, so is our knowledge.

Jack: As we said at the start, you go from Nokia, Snakes to Doodle Jump, and now Mario Cart exists on phones. You can play Pokémon on phones, what’s next?

Tom: Season two of our mobile-focused podcast, coming to a streaming service near you at some point in the future.

Jack: Well, maybe if this was a few years ago, maybe we would’ve thought there’d be enough for a mobile spinoff.

Alex: One thing that’s worth saying perhaps, is that if you do have a specific question about your mobile launch, feel free to hit us up on our socials.

Jack: We are @biggamesmachine on Twitter. You go hello at biggamesmachine.com on the email.

Alex: If you’ve got a specific question, happy to answer it. Maybe if we get enough, we could do them in another podcast, or if you’re looking for broader PR help obviously, we are there for that, but mobile games, things are their own challenge, so if you’ve got any small questions, Jack, I, and Tom will be happy to answer.

Jack: Wraps it up, thanks for listening. We’ll be back soon with more hopefully informative content just as much as entertaining, see you on the next one.

Tom: See you later.

Alex: Bye.

[music]

[00:31:26] [END OF AUDIO]

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