If you market each one individually, you weaken your ad campaign. Now instead of one big ad blitz, you've got three major ad campaigns

I just contacted them again and they DOUBLED THEIR PRICE today !

Originally the quoted me $3,000 for a full release to all platforms.

They have confirmed this price several times in the previous months.

Today they just DOUBLED that to $6,000 for all platforms, claiming that an announcement to Steam would cost more than originally quoted.

This has officially lost me.

They give a reason as to why its going to be double the original quoted price other than it would cost more. Did they break down down the costs for you explaining what they would be doing and why?

Have you considered looking into marketing the game yourself.

Here is a good read.

http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-marketing-guide-for-game-developers/

They give a reason as to why its going to be double the original quoted price other than it would cost more. Did they break down down the costs for you explaining what they would be doing and why?

Their response from earlier today: "the overall package would change a bit -- mostly because a full Steam launch requires a couple of extra PR pushes."

I could send them their earlier emails and try to make them stick to their earlier price,, not sure it will work.

They sent me incorrect invoices for testing the game as well...

Thank you for that link ! Looks very informative !

Answers many of the questions I've had about how to prepare the Press Kit, etc. !

Two tutorials I have found edifying:

Marketing your indie game

Marketing checklist for your indie game

An actual marketing checklist/plan utilised by Dejobaan Games for their 5th steam release:

Drunken Robot Pornography: PR/Marketing Strategy

With regard to the PR company you have been having some dealings with, some thoughts come to mind:

• They have a history of making billing errors (given you used the plural of invoice). This is not necessarily a terrible mistake but it is a legitimate concern when it comes to dealing in any financial relationship with the company.

• They failed to communicate exactly what changes would be entailed with regards to the price increase i.e. what additional marketing pushes would be required and why. Given that the PR company arguably has experience in this domain -- detailed information or approaches should be readily explainable without catch words like "we would need to do more marketing" or "An announcement to Steam will cost more" -- What announcement, what do they mean when they say this? You should not be confused by what it is they are doing, you should instead understand exactly what they are doing and paying for their experience and ability to make things happen as they have systems in place to open the right doors and fill in the right paperwork etc.

• A quote (esp. a written quote) will normally have a rider on it which defines the period of time for which the quote is valid. NOTE: Not having such a rider included on the quote is not a good sign of business professionalism.

• A full steam launch is not necessarily the same as a game approved and published via Greenlight, it might incorporate a direct partnership with Valve or possibly a partnership with a publisher already in relationship with Steam. Defining what a full steam launch means to the PR company is something you would want to know prior to engaging in a relationship.

What you do is up to you, but seeking professional business aid in marketing is not an unreasonable course, just make sure they are professional.

Postscript.

One thing I failed to mention. Research. Said PR company has launched previous products, look for products that are in similar scale as to your own game and reach out to the owner/manager/devs of those games. Ask them what their experiences were like when dealing with the PR company. Was the expense worth the outcomes provided? Was their sufficient clear communication amongst all parties that had everyone on the same page? Did the outcomes achieve expectations? In some ways this type of research should be an early step when first looking for a PR/marketing company.

A PR company is built on its reputation, both with the client and with the press, as well as the results.

PR comes in 3 flavors!

1) Success with Happy Developers (Green? :D) The PR campaign was a success. You'll find the PR company links to these people and references you to talk to them. If the PR company does NOT have anyone you can talk to as a reference, avoid them (unless they're brand new and offering you some awesome prices, which may be worth the risk).

2) Failure with Happy Developers (Blue? lol ...) The game was a failure but the developers feel the PR company really did an awesome job and the failure occured somewhere else. The holy grail of a good PR person is having a stock of these types of clients. Not every game will be a success, but if a failure is still reccomending the same person it means they're clearly a cut above in terms of their service.

3) Failure with Unhappy Developers (Red) The game fails and the client is UNHAPPY with the service. Go out of your way to find these people, they won't be listed on the PR person's website so some extra searching will have to be done. Take it with a grain of salt and get details. Some people are unhappy because their game failed and it isn't the PR person's fault, but they're the ones that take the blame. Sometimes the PR person just doesn't do a good job AND the game isn't very good.

There's also the really odd case where the game does well but it has nothing to do with the PR person they hire, but I've almost never encountered that.

Anyway, to me I don't like the way these guys sound so far...

As to your original question: There's a bit of value in a simultanious launch IF the game is cross platform multiplayer. If not, there's probably very little extra value there. Any game that benefits from "economies of scale" - which in this case is a larger online population or some other synergy for having many people playing at once - then you want to hit the server as hard as possible on day 1. Otherwise you may not need to do a simultanious launch - BUT- and this is a big BERTHA sized butt:

1) Mobile games are hard to make money OR promote via PR (clever ad buying and high RPU is the easiest way to win here).

2) Steam games that are mobile to PC ports usually do very poorly (Bad reputation for good reason, why play a simple mobile game with a powerful gaming rig?)

There are two scenarios where things are a bit different

1) Your mobile game really does kick ass (Badlands) and therefore comes to Steam with a powerful following and fans (Win / win and you go take a Scooge McDuck Moneybath).

2) You wait to launch your mobile game AFTER Steam's launch in order to fool Steam users into thinking your game is not a mobile port. (Which will be MUCH harder now that they have refunds).

Not to suggest you go with plan #2, as it is shady and the new refund policy will kick you in the ass potentially - but that is a strategy employed by some people.

Hope that helps!

Two tutorials I have found edifying:

Marketing your indie game

Marketing checklist for your indie game

Postscript.

One thing I failed to mention. Research. Said PR company has launched previous products, look for products that are in similar scale as to your own game and reach out to the owner/manager/devs of those games. Ask them what their experiences were like when dealing with the PR company. Was the expense worth the outcomes provided? Was their sufficient clear communication amongst all parties that had everyone on the same page? Did the outcomes achieve expectations? In some ways this type of research should be an early step when first looking for a PR/marketing company.

Thank you Stormynature ! I want to explore these links tonight !

I did some research into a recent game they released to Steam. According to http://steamspy.com, this game is making over $100k per month.

I know they landed some major reviews, which undoubtedly helped. This income would justify spending $6k on a release. I just don't like being given one price, then being given a doubled price for the same thing. And I also didn't like to hear that I should wait for the game to be Greenlit before releasing to mobile... which seems redundant and too slow.

The price they quoted me previously was "for everything", and just this week increased that price drastically beyond their previous quote.

2) You wait to launch your mobile game AFTER Steam's launch in order to fool Steam users into thinking your game is not a mobile port. (Which will be MUCH harder now that they have refunds).

Hope that helps!

Thank you DanglinBob !

#2 looks like their strategy... Thanks for letting me know about the potential effect of the new refund policy as well.

I want to talk to some of their other clients... will see how to do that.

I've spent more than a year on this game so far.

Definitely hoping for a "Scooge McDuck Moneybath" !

before releasing the game to mobile.
Is this true ?

It's a strategy. Like all strategies, it assumes a number of things. Whether these are relevant for your particular setup is impossible to tell without the details.

I assume they are aware of the details before making this sort of recommendation.

Now it's entirely up to whether you trust their judgment.

Steam Greenlight can help or hurt you. That's all I can say.