PR vs press: Who's helping who?

Assorted members of the UK press and games PR industries today debated the often fractious relationship with each other during a panel at the Develop conference.

Attending were Sony UK's Hugo Bustillos, Premier PR's Simon Byron, PC Gamer editor Tim Edwards and Nuts associate editor Rory Buckridge.

The panel began with a discussion of the problems of ensuring coverage for smaller titles. "We have 100 odd pages a week we are a very, very mainstream magazine," said Buckridge. "We can have one to two pages of games coverage in any one issue. So we're less likely to cover games from small developers. My editor will say: 'Never heard of it, next!'"

"It is tough for smaller games developers," agreed Byron. However, PC Gamer's Tim Edwards blamed the developers themselves for a lack of coverage. "People are less forthcoming than you might expect, and that's purely down to the indie development scene thinks they can just talk amongst themselves and that'll get their game noticed.

"Our readers are desperate to hear about indie developers living the dream, making games in their bedrooms. We want to talk about that stuff, but indie developers haven't noticed."

For UK PlayStation PR manager Hugo Bustillos, direct contact between studios and the media was a no-no, however. "That is a pet peeve of mine. I really don't like it when journalists go to developers or vice-versa. We have strict structures in place."

Marketing schedules could be destroyed by direct contact, he argued. "It all ends up a bit of clusterf***. Sometimes developers don't understand what we're doing and likewise I don't always understand their timelines."

In terms of PR strategies, Buckridge was concerned that many PRs were neglecting the essentials. "If you're targeting the mainstream magazines keep it easy and keep it simple."

In reference to screenshot site GamesPress, he said: "The games industry is the only industry where there's a business opening to supply assets to journalists. It's kind of preposterous that screen-grabs are so difficult to come across that a successful business has been launched to sell something free.

"In the last year Nuts has lost a headcount of three across the features desk. The time I spend on games get slashed every year. If the grabs aren't available, if they're watermarked, if I have to make seven phone calls to get them I'm going to cover something else. Sometimes I want to write about stuff but I can't because I only have two hours on a Thursday afternoon."

Added Edwards, "one of the things that frustrates me is any PR who thinks they can deliver the interview then fail to deliver the assets afterwards," emphasising how much time was spent chasing up images. "PCG covers around 110 games per issue, and I'm having conversations with someone from every one of those games."

Bustillos blamed limited screenshot availability and asset delays on the number of levels of approval often involved, but admitted there were problems at the most basic level. "The devs don't seem to understand what the magazine needs, the art teams just don't get that. We just need to educate our developers as well."

Bryon, however, felt the matter should be much more straightforward. "The problem is you've got so many people involved in it that... At Rockstar, doesn’t Sam or Dan Houser pick each screenshot? That strikes me as a process too far."

He also claimed the rise of the internet meant that "the role of PR has gotten easier. You used to have to take photos of the screen, fax press releases... now it's simple. It shouldn't be difficult. PR's a really straightforward job."

Eventually the elephant in the room was brought up following GamesIndustry.biz's questioning of PR attitudes to the ongoing decline of print circulations, especially in light of yesterday's proposed closure of PC Zone.

All involved seemed a little evasive on the issue, with much discussion centering around how aesthetically appealing physical coverage was but not much talk on whether the panel's fond feeling about magazines was proportionate to how many people were reading them.

However, Bustillos pointed out that a magazine cover meant "that's your ad on the shelf sat there," while Byron argued: "The specialist press can have an impact on the mainstream: Ten-out-of-tens in Edge are still talked about."

Buckridge felt that generalist titles would continue to decline while specialist crept back up, but that the internet had to be embraced. "I think everyone knows where the industry's going, but we have to be smart about how we approach the change."