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Once again I am here to give new information on not only the success I just found, but my failure that helped me find it. Now I spent some time talking to different independent retailers as well as a merchandiser I know. To no surprise, no one wanted to take a risk, because everyone wanted to play it safe. Go figure. I don't blame them, but that caused a problem for me and for not only getting Nano Games title out there who they signed up to sell through me, but also my own games. What could I do? We all know that you want to have your game sold everywhere. To sell in places like Gamestop etc. you need a ESRB rating. So I hit a brick wall. I went to see a movie the other day. Now at our local IMAX theater we have a gaming center. I went over there and I checked out their games. I had talked to them about maybe holding a tournament with the game. I heard some people taking about how they wanted to buy the game they were playing. Then it hit me, the true potential of what I was seeing.
When you see a game on a store shelf you cannot play it, but they do have some games that you can test out. It lets you get a view of the game before you play it. Well, what if you could do the same thing, but instead of a store, do it at a gaming center. You can provide the center with a disc of the game and they can put it on as many consoles as they want. Provide them with a box and they can put it on display. Tell them where their gamers can buy it, and you are doing direct sales because they cannot get the game anywhere else. Not only do you make more money, but it is cheap promotion that is effective, because people can test it before they play it. Now, if I offered a game center a free copy of a game to use in their centers would they do it? I figured what do I have to lose?
I looked up as many gaming centers as possible online. I sent them an email telling them about the game, made a section to show them screen shots, plots, why we wanted to use gaming centers to market our game as we felt it was more effective then retailers and added some perks. I am going to be doing radio commercials and I said that I would make a commercial saying that the game could be played at that specific gaming center int he local area. Also, on the games website that we would build, we would list the gaming centers where you could play the game.
I emailed maybe 40 gaming centers yesterday. I got about the attention of several hundred gaming centers across the nation. Not only did this cause interest, but it spread a word of mouth. One gaming center said they would do it and not only use the game, but highlight it and send us statistics of how popular it is, how many people play it, etc. I am going to talk to them about running contests at their center where we furnish games in exchange for heavier promotion of the games and EGameStudio at their center.
So, don't worry about retailers, because as you can see there are other creative ways to market your game. This is a explosive way to get low cost promotion that is better then seeing your game on a shelf. Not only can people test your game out, but they can literally test it before they buy it. If you offer your game through one spot only, then they have no choice but to buy it directly form you if they want the game, which leads to more profits for you.
I hope this helps everyone who is seriously trying to market their games, as it has given me a new perspective to marketing my future games as well as the studios I am working with on the independent level.

Thank you for your support.

Thanks for the news, that's very interesting, looks like you are learning about marketing, please keep us informed of your strategies.

im impressed, ive been keeping an eye on your threads about this subject and as much as i would have liked to believe it, i was still a little unsure about your scheme.

This has convinced me that you know what your talking about XD if i ever want to market a game, i would most likely come to you first

I think your threads are interesting and informative.The only question I have is since they all seem to be about publishing games why you have more than one thread?
I agree that the stuff you have posted might be sueful but having more than one thread pushes other threads down and is not fair to the other forum members.

Somehow this post was duplicated form the first one when I was adding the new banner/sig.

Here is a good article on indie developing.

Scratchware Manifesto from home of the underdogs.

http://209.120.136.195/scratch.php

OK. Just got another contact. For those of you FPSC developers who want to market your own game or want to know how it is done here is the type of approach that has worked for me in the most successful way I never intended.



As you can see this is really just a short paragraph identifying who we are, giving the intentions, and asking them if they would be interested. I always feel that a sales pitch is never the way to go. Who knows how many people are saying the same thing to them. So you want to KISS it. Keep It Short and Simple. Don't make it more complicated then what it is.
Here is another way to approach people if you want to try to get referrals for other gaming centers.



I am testing out some other methods that I learned in the past. I will let you know how it goes. If all goes well with that, then I will post what I did, how I did it, and the result.

I hope this helps.

Nice! I might try this once I get my game up, Well... once I buy my little copy of FPSC... But good work!

Announcement for anyone looking for a publisher: OK, I am a honest person and I am making this announcement for my benefit. I never claimed to be a 2K, Lucas Games or any other type of game distributor. I am a small guy in this like I have said countless times. If you are looking for someone to produce major sales, make you hundreds of thousands a year and get you major endorsements, then please do not come to me. I cannot get a ESRB rating yet as I have not registered, although I plan to in the next year or a little before then. I am a growing group who does not have the foundation of Microsoft. So, if you do come to me, please do not talk about how much you will make, sales, how many copies of your game can I get sold, etc. I know some merchandisers and know people I work with or who have worked with in the past, and if they choose not to carry your game, then thats their professional choice. Its not my decision. So pick an alternative like Mythopea Games, who have different packages and I have the email saying they can get you an ESRB rating. They have 24 titles, 1 which looks good.
Now if you are looking for a group that will take their time with your game, and you want someone small who is growing and will put their full effort into it, then contact me. I put my 100% + more into it. Also note that I am developing my own games and I have been doing this before I joined the FPSC community, so if I take my time to do something, then it means that I am taking time from my own projects and you are taking time away from yours as well. This is my job as this is how I make my living. This is not a hobby or something I do for fun. I am more then willing to help, but at the same time, I need people to be patient and understand that I am not Ubi Soft.

I thank everyone for their support and I hope this post clarifies what I can and cannot do. I am willing to try my best, but that does not mean every marketing tactic I try will be successful. However, I do not resoirt to only one tactic. I am continually developing and implementing new ideas. As long as you are patient and are willing to accept my limitations, then I will continue to progress with you. If you start telling me sales this, sales that, who's going to carry this game, how many retailers do you have, and make it seem like the time and effort I am putting into getting your game out there is not enough, then thats when I will say, heres some other people who can accomplish what you want.

You are right.
I have always been against Ratings, but if you want to get your game out there it's a must.
I think I'll explore this now too. I will register soon.

What I am doing is indie marketing without an ESRB rating. I will soon advance to one, but at this time I am happy with what I am doing. Anyone who gets an ESRB rating, remember, it does not mean you will get into big stores, it just means you will have an opportunity to due to the rating. Gaming centers may not be stores, but I showed the potential. That is something I could be happy with at the level I am on, especially since with all the packs and add ons to FPSC, it does not cost over $500, and is probably lower then that. So if a $500 investment earned me even just $6,000, then it was a good investment. But as I said, as you grow your network, you can make more and use the profits ot advance. Remember, Microsoft, 2K Games, EA, and the rest did not start off as major players. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you eventually grow. But you can only grow by not giving up and having preserverance despite the hard times, no sales, and failed attempts. I read once, that when people are about to give up, thats right when they were going to reach success.
If you are only focused on sales then you wont go far. Passion and dedicaiton is what carries us, not thoughts of being rich. Because when you dont get rich you give up, but when you have passion, you continue and then the money eventually comes.
Thanks for your support and I am glad this thread is helping people out there.

You may already be familiar with this, but a while back I thought about creating an independent rating scheme and came across http://www.tigrs.org/.

They have been out there a couple of years and although they are not recognized by "the gaming industry", they do offer a rating system that you can freely use.

Concerned parents or users can go to the home page and view the ratings and what content they may contain. It's better than nothing. Whether it will be any help to publishers who are trying to get into retail venues or not, I don't know.

Best.

@ PAS: This is really good stuff! Make sure you keep it all up!

I think you should still create a rating system. The more the better. The ESRB is a monopoly and the only reason why it is so big and you have to use it to be in big stores is because they control the market. the only reason why they control the rating market, is because they are the only rating system out there. I am very tempted to make my own rating system and market it for free and even set up a board to give it a proper rating. I did not even know about this until Jonathan Samson and you mad me aware of it. I contacted the developer (Daniel), of this rating system and have proposed a strategic marketing partnership to get this rating system form TIGRS out there. I feel is should be made aware and that it would benefit all developers. Especially those not wanting to go to the ESRB. This alternative leaves no excuse as to why you do not have a rating for your game and I am sure would be appreciated by parents. Thanks for this post as it was helpful to find out this information and I am sure it will give hope to the people here who can now have a rating alternative for free.



Thanks! I am happy to announce that Oddlab Studios has signed up as an affiliate vendor. We are working on setting up things with them, but soon, Tribal Trouble will be available through EGameStudio. So this is good news. Let me know how everything goes with Mythopea games.

Any new information or announcements I will post here. I thank everyone for their support.

What do ESRB charge?

$1000's. Oddlabs hey? any news of a TT2 yet
*Slayer_2

To much. As said 1,000s of dollars.



I forgot to ask I will ask. Sorry. Yes, they just sent an email to me this morning and I activated their account this morning. We are trying to set things up to sell their game. I will keep you posted.



I hate being right about that, but it is true. however I have been thinking and I am OK with not having my game in a store. All the time you could spend getting a game in a store could have made you successful marketing some other way. Stores are not the only way to sell things. I am going to stick with my methods. I don't need a retail chain. I can do it myself and promote it in many different ways and make more money doing it. I am happy with that. But Conjured Entertainment I hope you do get the level of success you want.

Ok. I am getting ready to go on vacation tomorrow, but I had several developments happen this morning two of which are huge. The first was mind boggling to me, but it also made me feel like I was on the right track.

Now earlier in the week I had wrote to places that rent games. I mean, hey maybe they would use my FPSC game to rent. No guts no glory, right? Well this one rental company that rents PS3, XBOX 360 and other consoles, carrying over 5,000 games, they wrote back. They don't deal in computer games. However, they were interested in co-promoting. From my email that I never thought I would hear a reply form and did it because it only took a few minutes to write, I got a reply. So we are working on a cross promotion where they would endorse me for computer games and I would endorse them for console games. We are seeing if we can figure out a mutual agreement. So, if it does work out, then I have all of their clients who have console games, who will be aware of my PC game. Now thats powerful results that can boost anyones sales. It cost me 5 minutes to write the email and thats it so contact them. so do not give up. Contact anyone, even if you do not think they will contact you back. You never know. I will let you know if I make a deal or not with this company. If it does work out, this could be somethign you could do with your websites with game rental companies to promote your games.

I would suggest that for anyone who wants to sell their games go with a promotional company. I talked to one today and they have obtained promotion agreements with people to work with me. These are places like Best Buy, XBOX, Sony etc. There will be different contests for people to sign up for free for free to win a new XBOX 360, gift cards from game retailers, PSP giveaways etc. This marketing company set this up for me fast. They also will be checking up with me and we will be working on strategies together to increase sales and run promotions that will cater to people to promote my games and give them attention to be bought. So, this is very cool, powerful and will help anyone boost sales. I highly recommend it. It can also help you with gaming centers as you can run major contests that they cna promote for you as well and it generates a lot of good buzz.

I have not been sure if I should get a ESRB rating or not, but after talking with this company, I wont for at least 2009. I am having way to much success doing this without a retailer and it has been a lot more fun doing it this way. I have talked with owners on a independent level as well as CEO's of big companies. I feel places like Amazon, Microsoft etc. all started off form this point, then built up. I want to do the same. Be like a Amazon and grow into a recognized name and not rely upon retailers who even if they did put me on my shelves would not give me a lot of thought or attention. Thats what I want EGameStudio to be known for, Personally giving attention to the true independents who don't need to be in a major store chain to be successful.

This is growing successful more and more each day. I am continually achieving new ties and results all the time. So i figure I must be doing something right. Whereas if I tried to go to a store, they would let my game collect dust on their shelves and care less. I mean whats the point of having a game in a store if it does not sell. Sure its on the shelf, but that doesn't mean its being bought.

More gaming centers are talking to me so now I am making a campaign to focus on them as this is my key and plan to market my games. If you have no other options, then try gaming centers. In my short experience with them, they are independently owned for the most part, and the owners always contact you and are nice.

I will be gone tomorrow until next week for Vegas. I am sure I will get new ideas when I am there. I will post any new developments or ideas when I come back.

I appreciate everyones support.

Hello everyone. Before I leave on my vacation, I set up my promotion with the company. I decided to go with a Best Buy promotion that gives away a free $15 Best Buy card to start off with and once a month you cna get have a chance to win a free cell phone paid for, for a year. Maybe later I will run a XBOX or PSP promo, but for now that is good. In a few weeks I will run a sweepstakes promotion. So this will be very cool. I do not have the promotion advertised on the game store yet, but you can go to my game cheats website and view it there @ http://www.exposedgamer.com Let me know what you think. Also, we are only running the promotion in the US for now as we are starting this small to see how well it will work for us.

Thanks for your support.

Edit: The point of showing you this promotion is to show you how it works and why it is a good idea to us epromotions like this to boost your sales and businesses image.