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[witherwood]

Hello all,

Ive just released my App Steelbound Sky and I was curious about this company called "gamepromoter" and what they offered.

You can see their PR offers here:

http://www.gamepromoter.biz/pr.html

*Edit* Broken Link. But you can see them here:

http://gamepromoter.net/index.html

I've only seen a handful of other paid PR options. I've  tried to do all the marketing on my own, press release, press kit, emailing tons of people etc but I was curious on the effectiveness of a company like this.

In the grand scheme of things, the prices arnt too bad. But if I had someone here would could give some insight
on this PR company that would be a lot better so I know what I was getting into.

Thankyou  

[witherwood]

Alright. Its been many months since my initial release and after my first update, around June I decided to give Gamepromoter a shot.

I'll try to be as professional as I can with my overview of the experience.

Overall, I have to say I would highly NOT recommend Gamepromoter. My experience with them has simply been a disappointment.

1. After I paid for one of the packages, it seemed unclear what to do next. There was not logical flow of what happened after I paid. The site was quick to gather my credit card information for a sum of money which could be a lot for some indie developers.

2. I had to email them directly AFTER I paid. They said they were busy at e3 which was fine to me and I understood that. The issue is, once I gave them the game information they asked for they said to give them "a day" to look over it. I waited... over a week. I had to "follow up" on them to see what the issue was. Instead they gave me a "receipt" to my order.

3. Finally, after more emails from me and 2 weeks later, they got back to me with an actual draft of "their" press release. It was mediocre at best... since it was pretty much a reworded version of my initial Press Release that I provided them. I had to edit it to my liking.

4. They finally start the promotion. They send me a couple of "links" of the press releases that were successful. The issue is, I could have easily submitted my own press releases to some of these sites. I was forwarded emails to with people interested about the game. But It was very unclear to me that it was my job to provide them with promo codes. As in, there was no email from the Gamepromoter team to say "Here are some people and their contact info that are interested in promo codes". No, instead they forward me these emails, which are quite unclear and formatted very awkwardly.

5. The campaign said they would distribute to YouTube and Twitch channels. I asked if there were any successful streams that occurred, I never got an answer directly back. One time I got an email from them saying "Hello Nice to meet you". I replied saying I was already a customer to them, and they have not emailed me back.

And that's my experience with game promoter. They got my game advertised on a couple of sites with some links, but it certainly did not move sales the way they advertised it would.

My disappointment with them was NOT with the sales, or with the amount of people who got interested. I understand that some games don't sell. I know there is no silver bullet or magical lamp that makes games successful.

Rather, it was mostly the customer service. I tried my best to be patient with them, but I felt I didn't get the same amount of respect back. I would ask a question, and it would take ages for them to get back or sometimes their response wasn't even on topic. I'm not sure what their team is comprised of, but I don't recommend working with them. There are far better ways to use your time and resources.

PS* Another person who emailed me as this person was also curious about Game Promoter. The person used it before me, and also found the experience was lack luster.

If anyone else has any stories or experience with them please share them

[alvarop]

Sounds like a terrible "company"...

[Grhyll]

Thanks for the feedback, and sorry to hear you had to gather it the hard way :/

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

Thanks for the feedback, not impressed at all after looking at the website.

They send me a couple of "links" of the press releases that were successful. The issue is, I could have easily submitted my own press releases to some of these sites.

is it possible you provide here those links?

5. The campaign said they would distribute to YouTube and Twitch channels. I asked if there were any successful streams that occurred, I never got an answer directly back. One time I got an email from them saying "Hello Nice to meet you". I replied saying I was already a customer to them, and they have not emailed me back.

That's crazy lol, seems to be a common aspect from a lot of "publishers" and "advertisers".

[witherwood]

is it possible you provide here those links?

Sure thing. So here is a press release on Gamasutra:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/276381/Defend_Your_Town_Under_Attack_In_The_iOSreg_ExclusivelsquoSteelbound_Skyrsquo__Reinventing_The_Classic_ShootlsquoEm_Up_Genre.php

But the fact is, I was also able to get my initial press release on that site on my own.

Here is another site they managed to get to show the press release:

http://invisioncommunity.co.uk/2016/07/06/steelbound-sky-flys-ios/

That's crazy lol, seems to be a common aspect from a lot of "publishers" and "advertisers".

Indeed, I felt they could have placed more effort with their customers. 

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

that's horrifying to see such case of disrespect while they put 500 dollars in their pocket.

Thanks for helping other devs by making this topic.

[CesarD8]

That sounds awful, and those pages seem like almost everyone could have done them. I recently read an article in gamasutra that talked about the way games used to be marketed against the way they are marketed now, it basically said that the kind of traditional marketing that involves press releases, ads, and that kind of stuff doesn't work as well as it used to. The things that we should focus on nowadays are the twitch streams and youtubers. Here is the link of said article:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BrandonSheffield/20160907/280853/Publishers_for_indies__are_they_useful_anymore.php

I hope it can help you in the future 

[readyplaygames]

I'm sorry you had to go through that. Thank you for posting here so we can avoid them.

[kalyrical]

If you were looking for press release creation and distribution, I just wanted to throw Mana Marketing's name into the hat.

I obviously can't vouch for myself, but you can take a look at our site's homepage for some press coverage we've acquired for our clients. We've also got a client page with feedback from our clients. We do more than just send out an email blast— our one-month campaigns with clients include us following up with media outlets over the month and then presenting analytics and results to you when wrapping up the campaign. PR services are just one of the things we do, so if you have any questions, you can definitely send me an email!