Have you had a chance yet to check out LawBreakers? A ton of gaming outlets have, as Wonacott was on the job to get the hyper competitive 5v5 FPS – created by Boss Key Studios and published by Nexon America – on the radar of the top news and reviews video game websites. But here’s the deal – there are a lot of FPS games out there. And Cliff Bleszinski, Boss Key co-founder, has some of the most impressive cred when it comes to game design. LawBreakers was unabashedly fast, frenetic and, in a unique twist, incorporated a lack of gravity, which takes the game play vertical. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Preceding the game’s launch on Aug. 8, 2017, we knew we couldn’t rely on the “PR 101” approach of blasting out code to any and all review editors in the days before launch. As a competitive, arena-based 5v5 FPS, LawBreakers required populated servers for matchmaking and players who appreciate wickedly fast fragging. Making sure the servers were populated was easy – forgo the traditional tactic of seeding release code in advance of launch and instead withhold hold it until launch day when the servers are populated. As for making sure it was reviewed by editors and influencers who “get it”… we made a risky decision.
The team went deep into research, looking at media who had shown an affinity of the game during previews and at editors who had a proven track record with and affinity for twitch FPS games. We needed press who could keep up with the fast-paced and unforgiving gameplay. As the sole holders of the North American PC and PS4 game codes, we had to be both proactive and reactive to meet media needs – proactive, by creating our target list and distribute codes to them, and reactive by vetting and responding to the huge influx of review code requests from media who might not have met our criteria (but who we wanted to keep on the hook in case we opened up for wider reviews).
And it worked. Though some sites elected to not take code from us as they didn’t want to commit to who would be writing the review, vetting for FPS-skilled reviewers was a success. By the close of launch week, we had locked in more than 20 positive game reviews from media including IGN, PC Gamer, and Destructoid. The Metacritic review score averaged a respectable 80. A few weeks later we opened review codes up to an expanded list is media, and continued to secure additional reviews from sites such as GameSpot, Digital Trends, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun, bringing the U.S. media review count to nearly 60.
Here’s a look at some of the coverage highlights:
