Bad North

Developed by Plausible Concept and published by Indie darlings Raw Fury, the brief from the client was for a short (and simultaneous) announcement + review and Influencer campaign for the Switch, PS4 and Xbox One releases in the UK, France and Germany. Along with our European partners, we therefore had to work fast and hard to place Bad North with as many key gaming outlets and Influencers as possible to ensure as much positive awareness around the games’ launch. This was achieved as positive news, review and “Let’s Play” coverage was secured with outlets including Eurogamer, Nintendo Life and Reformist TM in the UK, Jeux Video and Gameblog.fr in France, along with GameStar, 4Players and PCGames.de in Germany.

Crusader Kings III

Adapting quickly and decisively, the planned preview event for May 2020 was quickly moved to a digital only hands-on event with attendees including Gamespot, Rock Paper Shotgun and PC Gamer, generating extensive and overwhelmingly positive coverage.

With the momentum and buzz surrounding the game gathering pace as the release date neared in early September, mainstream media outlets were a key component of the latter stages of the campaign in order to try and broaden the scope of the coverage outside of the hardcore strategy press. The Sun (5/5), The Express Online (5/5), NME (5/5), and Stuff were some of the mainstream outlets that lavished universal praise on Crusader Kings 3 which, at time of writing, has a metacritic rating of 91.

MAGICKA 2

Released on PlayStation 4 and PC in May 2015, Magicka 2 was the MOBA-like sequel to the indie-darling Magicka. The PR and promotional campaign was focused on gameplay coverage featuring up to four games media or YouTubers playing together and publishing the often hilarious results.

As such, the campaign was split-focused between the gaming media, who championed the original game, and YouTubers, the best visual medium for showing how much fun Magicka 2 is played with other players, including a negotiated exclusive with Yogscast ’Sjin’ who posted 10 “Let’s Play” videos in total, each one receiving between 50,000 and 200,000 views.

Starborne

With no PR strategy in place, we were brought on board for 18 months to help build and implement a long-term PR plan taking the project through and beyond its Open Beta launch in April 2020. With the aim of the PR campaign to not only increase the awareness for the game, we secured a number of high-profile features and articles in both the UK and US including a 4 page Studio Profile in EDGE magazine, a Studio feature on GamesIndustry.biz along with hands-on features for Starborne with Rock Paper Shotgun and as well as a front cover and 4 page feature with Wireframe magazine.

Call of the Sea

Revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase in Spring 2020, Call Of The Sea immediately stood out with its vibrant colour palette and relaxed, cerebral gameplay. Building on that reveal, we secured a prominent video slot at the E3 edition of the Future Games Show, helping to write the voiceover script for first time Spanish developers Out Of The Blue. The response was overwhelming. This then enabled us to secure a second voiceover video slot at the Gamescom edition of the Future Games Show, building up to the game’s release on Xbox and PC in December, along with a 4 page preview and Studio profile in EDGE Magazine. By the time of release the profile and anticipation for the game was very high which was reflected in the critical response including 5/5 from The Metro, 9/10 from IGN and 4/5 from The Guardian.

Divinity Original Sin II

The follow-up to the critically acclaimed original game released in 2014, the campaign for this eagerly anticipated sequel focused squarely on Specialist Gaming media and influencers, the core audience for this in-depth and content rich Computer Role Playing Game.

With a current metacritic rating of 93 and surpassing the original in every aspect, Divinity: Original Sin 2 was extensively covered by every key gaming outlet and Influencer in the UK and universally hailed as one of the greatest CRPG’s of all time including review scores of 10/10 from The Metro online, 92% from PC Gamer, 9/10 from EDGE and Eurogamer rating it as ‘Essential’.

Sable

One of the most eagerly anticipated indie games of recent years since its reveal at E3 in 2018, when the release date was finally locked in for September 2021 the PR campaign could begin in earnest. With so much interest in its two-man development team, Shedworks, coupled with the stunning soundtrack from Japanese Breakfast and its comic-book aesthetic, we targeted the full breadth of mainstream, lifestyle and specialist gaming media including reviews, features and interviews in outlets including The Sun, The Metro, The Guardian, NME, Mail Online and Stuff. This resulted in blanket coverage around launch more in keeping with a Triple A release.

Tyranny

The highly anticipated follow-up to Pillars of Eternity, developers Obsidian unleashed isometric RPG Tyranny to an expectant world. Feeding on this anticipation, Johnny Atom delivered a widespread PR campaign across Specialist Gaming and Mainstream media along with a comprehensive influencer campaign.

The critics loved the game with coverage appearing in outlets including The Guardian who said that “Tyranny will leave a lasting legacy on RPG’s” on the way to scoring it 4/5 and Eurogamer who described Tyranny’s depiction of evil as “fascinating and thought-provoking”.

Cities: Skylines

The new benchmark for the City Building genre, Cities: Skylines was released in March 2015 and took the gaming world by storm. The promotional campaign was heavily focused on the YouTube community, allowing them access to the game and to post gameplay videos in advance of the traditional gaming media.

This tactic, spearheaded by a negotiated exclusive with Yogscast ‘Sips’ who posted the very first “Let’s Play” video anywhere in the world, created an unprecedented level of positive word-of-mouth buzz resulting in Cities: Skylines recording a million sales in its first five weeks on sale.

JACKBOX PARTY PACK 2

Approached by US publisher Jackbox Games at the eleventh hour, Johnny Atom was tasked with securing as much news and review coverage in the busy Q4 2015 period across all Specialist Gaming, Mainstream and Lifestyle media in the UK.

Regardless of the limited amount of time available to us in the busiest release period of the year, we secured around 30 positive reviews with nothing lower than 7/10 across key Gaming and Mainstream media including 9/10 in the Sun on Sunday and 4/5 in the Independent.

Sniper Elite -

Nazi Zombie Army

Developed and published by one of the biggest and last remaining independent UK developers, Rebellion, Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army was a standalone game on PC set in the Sniper Elite Universe.

A massive three month global PR campaign targeting Specialist Gaming and Lifestyle media was undertaken and proved highly successful generating huge awareness for this Third/First Person Shooter allowing it to spawn a sequel.

West of Dead

Featuring the vocal talents of Hollywood actor Ron Perlman, West of Dead was a multiplatform cell-shaded rogue-like twin stick shooter from British development studio Upstream Arcade and Swedish publisher Raw Fury. Being UK based, the client (Raw Fury) felt that getting the game in to the hands of key UK Specialist Gaming media at the preview stage would be pivotal in driving awareness for the game in the run up to release. We therefore organised a studio visit for Official PlayStation Magazine, which culminated in a 4 page preview. A 4 page preview with EDGE magazine was also secured.