A Year of Crisis: What PR Professionals Can Do to Improve the Video Game Industry
Content warning: discussions of systemic racism, sexual assault and harassment
Imagine like any other day, you wake up, get breakfast, and check Twitter. Your friend retweeted someone complaining that funds had disappeared from their Nintendo account, or they make a comment about a plot point in The Last of Us II weeks before it is supposed to come out. A streamer you like types out their disappointment and feelings of abandonment, or your feed is filled with testimonials and support for those who have been mistreated or feel broken. The streets outside your window are filled with boarded-up storefronts and blocks away, police beat and batter people practicing their right to protest.
What you imagined is what we all have witnessed or experienced over the past six months in the gaming community. And as a public relations graduate who wants to work in games, these are the issues I will have to grapple with as a gamer and a professional.
The point of this is not to reshare stories you have heard or man-/Whitesplain issues I am not qualified to preach about but to discuss what we as members of these communities and public relations practitioners can take away from them. These are my own opinions and reflect on how I have reacted and will continue to react to issues of this kind. I’ll go through each crisis topic and detail what I think we can learn and how we can correct or prevent these crises.
Data breaches
Earlier this year, Nintendo had 300,000 user accounts compromised in a large-scale attack, where hackers used Nintendo Network IDs to access accounts and spend users’ money. Nintendo apologized for “any inconvenience and concern” caused by the breach, and their response was standard: email the affected users and encourage password changes and two-factor authentication.
This is far from the first major breach in the gaming industry, but in the nine years since PlayStation Network was hacked and forced to shut down for 23 days, the response has changed drastically. Sony had to send written answers to questions from the US House of Representatives, and it was a rather drawn-out crisis for Sony. Though the linchpin of that crisis was that personally identifiable information could have been compromised, Nintendo’s breach saw little to no concern from lawmakers and, in my view, a modest response from their fans. Maybe we have just become numb to the idea that our digital accounts can be hacked, but there are still safeguards companies can take to prevent this.
Public relations professionals could suggest to their clients or bosses to require two-factor authentication for setting up accounts, thereby reducing the risk of a breach. Smaller companies should also be more cautious about breaches, as they have less ability to weather the storm. While Nintendo had a lot of accounts compromised, they have a massive player base that either was not affected or would not abandon the company if they were. If a smaller studio had this kind of issue, a loss in trust on that scale could spell certain doom.
Leaks
Few things are more damaging to a gaming company than leaks. From entire games worth of source code to footage of major plot points, leaks ruin media reveals, surprise moments, and, in the worst cases, a game’s financial viability.
For companies at any level, PR professionals should plan and prepare for possible leaks, whether games are popular/sought-after or not. No matter how much security is tightened on the developer side, leaks happen. PR professionals and community could also have conversations with their company’s or clients’ fanbases and creators about how these leaks impact development teams and sales figures. This is with the intent of reducing demand for leaks. The demand will likely always exist in some capacity, but leaks get less attention when people don’t want them as badly.
COVID-19
If you haven’t read how I felt about my last semester of college ending abruptly, check that out.
COVID-19 has put stress on the entire world, and while the gaming industry remained mostly insular against the widespread pattern of furloughs and layoffs, we have all been affected in some way. Conference cancellations put stress on event organizers who were losing revenue, indie devs who were losing chances to bring in new fans and coverage, and public relations professionals were thrust into crisis mode with every single client (*cue panicked screaming*). I personally was at PAX East when GDC got canceled, and the collective response was, “this is NOT going to be good.”
That response was correct: game development and releases were delayed, and every other conference after GDC was canceled or moved online. Of course, gamers got a lot more time to play, and sales shot up with everyone stuck inside, looking for something to do. But now, we are seeing a different crisis that fans may not recognize: an oversaturation of industry news, games and stories to pitch and cover, and online conferences to keep up with. E3 usually contains this stressful peak to roughly one week, where journalists and PR professionals are stretched thin. Creative houses typically feel the burn in the weeks and days before E3 (office sleepover, anyone?), with a break in the weeks after. Instead, this period has been extended over all of June and July, putting sustained pressure on all three groups.
How can PR professionals help themselves and the people who promote or cover their games? Advocate that if online conferences/presentations are to become the new normal (which they certainly might), they need to be spaced out far more. This will give journalists and creatives more of a break and PR professionals more of a chance to have their games written about without competing for coverage against a new console, dozens of major AAA titles and a plethora of other announcements.
Closures and cancellations
Microsoft announced the end of Mixer yesterday.
Though Microsoft has an alternative to their closed enterprise with Facebook Gaming, closures and cancellations are still huge crises in the industry. The group feeling the biggest hurt from this event are the people who make streaming platforms what they are: streamers and influencers.
Microsoft has stated that they will help facilitate the transition for their streamers, but it is profoundly difficult to move an audience to a new platform. Even the highest viewed streamer Ninja got paltry numbers on Mixer, compared to his Twitch success after signing with the platform. Facebook is also being boycotted for their failure to address misinformation and racism on their platform, making the new platform less attractive to many. PR professionals can help in this instance by continuing to support their affiliated streamers and influencers on any platform they choose.
Cancellations are similar, as they abruptly stop the communities that form around games. Cancellations create reputational and financial crises for game companies, especially if a game is highly anticipated. Public relations professionals should always plan for the possibility of cancellation to have key messages, possible questions, and appropriate responses at the ready.
Systemic racism
Like I said before, I am not qualified to preach about racism in the gaming community. However, we all know that it is there, whether in a chat room or a meeting room.
As public relations professionals, we are ethically responsible for protecting our team members, influencers, and players from attacks and making them spaces for them to succeed and enjoy games in peace. This requires weeding out racism in your communities and doing the same in your corporate culture.
It also means more than just making a statement supporting #BLM or denouncing police murdering Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It requires improving diversity in executive teams and influencer partnerships. It requires putting your money where your mouth is like Niantic, The Pokémon Company, Devolver Digital, and others did. It requires supporting Black creators and developers, whether that be through helping them secure more publisher contracts or providing them with PR services.
There are also opportunities for PR professionals to intercept potentially problematic content in games before they are shown publicly. Nintendo would have done well to screen Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (particularly Mr. Game & Watch’s forward smash) before a PR professional or diversity board, and Neostream Interactive would have done well to do the same with their enemies in Little Devil Inside. However, acknowledging these issues when they arise and making immediate changes is what every company, as these companies did, is exactly how one should respond; swift apology and change before a game’s launch is necessary to give every player an enjoyable experience.
Public relations professionals are key to starting conversations about race, inequality, and systemic oppression in their companies, communities and games. There will be pushback from those who do not understand what is happening in the world or do not empathize with what others are going through, and as a PR professional, you can decide how to proceed; I personally plan to teach when people ask, correct when people make mistakes and ban when people attack.
#MeToo
“...while assault and harassment accusations are massive crises for gaming companies and streaming services, they are far bigger and sometimes lifelong crises for those who are personally affected”
It is not my place to mansplain what has been happening across our country, and particularly in the video game industry. However, as a public relations professional, it is important that I acknowledge that while assault and harassment accusations are massive crises for gaming companies and streaming services, they are far bigger and sometimes lifelong crises for those who are personally affected. If you cannot approach these topics with sensitivity and empathy, you should not be the one dealing with them.
Public relations practitioners have an ethical responsibility in this field as well, to root out sexism and harassment in their ranks, their influencer partnerships, and their communities. PR professionals can help further by advocating for their colleagues when issues arise, and we can encourage and support the diversification of leadership teams and influencer rosters to include more diversity of gender and sexuality. By lifting up voices that have been stifled in the community and setting higher standards for their companies and communities, public relations professionals have some of the most power to make a lasting change against harassment and assault in gaming.
Public relations is an incredibly valuable discipline in any organization, but with the wide range of possible crises and the need for further conversation and implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion, we are key players in the future of gaming. I hope this discussion has shed light on our role for those who only know the earned media side of our work, and I look forward to helping companies advocate their team members, influencers, and players in my career.