Effective game marketing requires a nuanced understanding of how audiences differ across various platforms.
Pete Hines, the former head of PR and marketing at Bethesda, recently appeared on the SlitherineGames YouTube channel for an episode of The Geek Recipe. During the interview, he shared insights into the complexities of managing player expectations during promotional campaigns.
Hines pointed out that marketing strategies must adapt to the platform: while PC enthusiasts are often preoccupied with technical specifications and customization, console players typically have different priorities.
According to Hines, PC gamers value transparency regarding how a game can be optimized for their specific hardware:
“Broadly speaking, players on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo aren’t particularly concerned with granular settings, but PC gamers are incredibly invested in them. It often came down to recognizing that in our next showcase, we needed to specifically address PC-centric features. We had to show that audience how they could tailor the experience to their hardware for the best possible results.”
Hines explained that the core challenge of managing expectations is identifying which game elements can be showcased authentically—features that are exciting enough to resonate with the public but stable enough to survive the rigorous development cycle.
“I recall the development of Oblivion and our Radiant AI system. It was meant to be a significant evolution from Morrowind, giving characters actual schedules. They wouldn’t just be ‘talking kiosks’ waiting for the player; they had places to go, jobs to perform, and beds to sleep in. While the concept sounded transformative on paper, the actual gameplay experience didn’t quite capture that magic. It became a lesson in expectation management: when players anticipate one experience but receive something fundamentally different.”
The veteran marketer noted that while promoting a finished game would be seamless, the industry demands that marketing begins while the product is still in flux. This leads to inevitable changes during the campaign:
“The version of a game in my mind is frequently superior to the one currently in development, and that happened all the time. It’s why we end up iterating on combat systems repeatedly or scrapping ideas entirely. This is what makes expectation management so difficult in our field. If we could wait until the game was gold to start promoting it, there would be no issue. The game is done; we can say whatever we want. But the industry simply doesn’t allow for that.”
“I think a major part of marketing is walking that thin line—fueling excitement without over-promising things that may never materialize. The ultimate failure for a marketer is inflating expectations so much that the final product inevitably falls short.”
Source: iXBT.games