The landscapes of marketing and the gaming industry are ever-changing. These are my predictions regarding the trends of this aspect of business in the upcoming year. If you want me to provide marketing services for your game, let’s talk – jakub@heapsagency.com
And now, without further ado…
ASO is going to grow
App Store Optimization, a way to influence the search engine of a storefront to make your game appear higher in search results is already huge. However, it seems to be the strongest in the realm of mobile gaming. I believe that these practices will seep more and more into the world of Steam, maybe even console gaming. After all, dabbling with all the tools that storefronts provide serves a vital purpose – they want to sell your stuff about as much as you do, as they also earn from it. This creates an environment where people who have both analytical and creative skills will thrive. Some of the most relevant activities that will be key to achieving success (on Steam) will include:
- capsule testing,
- artwork testing,
- product description optimization,
- tagging optimization,
- creating devlogs, and other posts and engaging with audiences in reviews (especially the negative ones) and forums,
- hosting live streams on Steam,
- workshop availability and management.
The great thing about these tasks is that plenty of them can be done by a single person. This makes ASO a facet of activities that simply has to be utilised. This is a great way of Talking about ASO, let’s move on to the next point.
Temporary discounts even more important
Judging from the publically available sources, other sources that I can’t disclose, memes and anecdotal evidence, people wait for huge sale events. While this is nothing new, it is probably a trend stronger than ever. Let’s face the facts – the economic situation in the world hasn’t been the greatest in the world for the last few years. This effectively renders people’s purchasing power to be quite low. On the other hand, getting used to living in excess is quite easy and people still want to enjoy stuff despite the collective hardships we face. With a practically unlimited supply of games (as they aren’t limited by the number of physical copies), games are in a position in which they are not vital but are a desired commodity. As the gaming libraries of people swell over time, they tend to buy games at discounts and schedule them to play in the future. This is more cost-effective and covers a need which people could do without.
What this means for gaming studios is that the price they set for their game is not exactly the one that will cause people to flock to buy it. Discounts are extremely effective in convincing your prospective consumers – even if they aren’t huge. We, as an industry, have brought it onto ourselves. Everyone cherishes Black Fridays, Steam Autumn Sales and such. Then, there are also additional promos, bundles, day-one discounts and such. It may be a decent idea to permanently mark up the price of your game to capitalize on discounts more – either by demanding a higher price than now with the same percentage or by making the discount rate higher.
Similar mechanisms will likely apply to console gaming.
TikTok gaming influencers will be more important
TikTok is diligently working on becoming the platform of choice for gaming marketers. However, most of the paid placements weren’t exactly placed on this platform. This caused gaming TikTok influencers to be in a precarious position. On one hand, they have massive followings and create viable content, on the other they seem overlooked and not necessarily set on maintaining a long-term interest in something that won’t bring them a lot of recognition and blessings from the algorithm.
However, other industries utilise TikTokers to great effect in their marketing. What I expect to see from the gaming industry is three types of activities regarding the influencers:
- “intrusive” product placement in their content (having them do the promo bit not within the context of their content),
- “native” product placement (which will be in line with their content and will feel more organic),
- “forcing a trend” (having plenty of TikTokers release the content made with or about the game at more or less the same time to make people interested in their product and to cause more UGC to be made).
Then. there’s the matter of making games that are the perfect fit for TikTokers. Lethal Company is a great example of that, balancing humour with horror and allowing to create small bits of content which will spread like wildfire over the platform. Not to mention the multiplayer capabilities. I reckon we’ll see plenty of clones of LC in the upcoming months, as it seems to be an idea that’s easy to replicate and is encouraging the creation of great UGC.
More mobile gaming methods in PC/console games marketing
The methods used in mobile game marketing are quite enticing. They strongly rely on data and tend to put a huge emphasis on management and optimising their operations. One of the interesting things many mobile companies do is to form their marketing almost exclusively around Growth, ie. PPC, ASO, influencer and affiliate marketing, not caring much about organic social media or community management.
Obviously, embracing such an approach in the Steam/console market would bear great effects – there’s so much more to do and to tell in most cases, and also less data to work with (I talked a bit more about it in this article). I do believe, though, that these hard growth techniques will become more present in the non-mobile markets. ASO, about which I wrote above and PPC will be explored more and more, even by smaller developers.
One of the tactics that I expect to see more is the performance tests of key visuals. This is usually done by mobile gaming studios in order to test the interest and clickability of their assets. They do this to gauge the potential interest and how desirable their game is going to be. It’s quite cost-effective and can bring heaps of valuable data for designers and marketers. Why not use it in the very beginning of creating an indie game? Pay no more than a couple hundred dollars and be aware of what clicks well – thus what’s enticing and likely more preferable on the storefronts.
Also, as a small bonus, here is the confrontation of my last year’s predictions with the reality!
- Further Advancement of Vertical Short Video – yup, happened
- More Focus Will Be Put On Cloud Gaming Publishing and It Will Become Easier for Indie Devs – it kinda happened, but it’s still niche and not necessarily easier for indie devs
- Twitter Ads May Become A New Hot Thing In The World Of PPC Campaigns – yeah nah, but some have definitely experimented with it; it was TikTok Ads that were more interesting for marketers
- ASO Will Become A Necessary Skill For CMs and Other Marketing-Adjacent Roles – ongoing
- We’ll See Record-Breaking (Both In Terms Of Quality And Earnings) Web3/NFT Games – lmao
3 out of 5 is not a bad score (I’m counting the 2nd and 4th as halves). Hopefully, I’ll be more accurate this year. Thanks for reading this article. Good luck with your endeavours in 2024!
Heaps Agency 