The Battle for the Player’s Mind

I have spent most of my life in the video game industry (if you are curious about my story, you can read about it here). In the past ten years, I have focused on brand positioning. After working with some of the most important video game companies on three different continents, I realised that positioning is the most critical part of developing a game.

Yes, it’s true. Unless you start with positioning, it is pointless to even write a single line of code or design a feature.

Only a few years ago, it was still possible for a game with good graphics and original gameplay to succeed with minimal marketing effort.

Today this is no longer the case, because the market is completely saturated. You can still start with a good idea, but before putting it into practice you need to do a proper market analysis.

What most of game developers do instead? They go straight into development: “If I like it, everybody else will.”

It doesn’t work like that.

Every day you dedicate yourself to creating your game. Maybe you are a solo developer; maybe you are part of a small group of friends who recently opened a studio hoping to turn your passion into income.

You and your team have been working hard for months, often crunching in front of your monitors late at night. You have given up quality time with your loved ones, believing that your sacrifice will one day be rewarded.

Finally, your game is published. But soon you are forced to face a harsh reality: it is not as successful as you expected. Sure, some people have downloaded it, but sales don’t cover production costs, let alone providing you and your family with the profit you deserve.

This is not your fault.

The video game industry is in constant, rapid change, and it’s not easy to keep up. Like other industries, such as automotive or beverages, it has now reached a mature stage.

Today, making a great game is no longer enough.

Like you, I too worked hard and went through frustration for weeks and months while developing my own projects. During those periods, I never had much time to spare with family and friends.

Then comes the exciting moment when you press publish on Steam, Google Play, or the App Store. But the excitement quickly fades, replaced by frustration, as sales and downloads drop rapidly.

The Real objective of a video game company

The objective of your studio is not simply to create games and sell them. Your company’s main objectives are two: innovation and marketing.

INNOVATION: You will not get ahead by creating a clone of Candy Crush or Fortnite. In future essays, I will show you concrete examples of this but, for now, I just want to make sure you agree with me on this first point. If you disagree, then you can stop reading right now because this article is not for you.

MARKETING: Any company with sporadic or non-existent marketing is not a real business and should never be managed as such.

You might say you have a bad opinion of people who do marketing: “We do all the work, and they take all the credit.”

I used to think the same.

And do you know why? Because I didn’t actually understand what marketing really meant.

If this resonated with you, I’d love for you to join me on my Substack, where I share the full article along with deeper essays on video game positioning and strategy. You can continue reading it here.