Square Enix Taps Maverick to Support Arkanoid Plus!, Dragon Quest Wars

Posted by PR_Flak in Maverick PR Business, Video Game Public Relations      Comments Off

Sep
24

Maverick Jumps In With Community and Media Support For Dragon Quest Wars and Arkanoid Plus!

Arkanoid Plus!

We’re really excited to announce that Maverick is continuing its relationship with Square Enix here in North America, this time jumping in to support media activities and community outreach for some of Square Enix’s awesome upcoming downloadable titles.

These downloadable games will be coming out on a bunch of different systems and they represent some pretty great video game franchises, so we couldn’t be more excited about this.  First up – the aforementioned titles:  Arkanoid Plus! for WiiWare and Dragon Quest Wars for DSiWare – good times!

Dragon Quest Wars

We’ve really enjoyed working with the entire team at Square Enix on Order of War (out now!!!) – and of course with all the people out there in the real world who we talk to every day about the game — and we expect great things from this new project.

So keep an eye out right away for information coming from Maverick about Arkanoid Plus! and Dragon Quest Wars — they are great games and come out very soon!

Maverick Hits SanFran with Square Enix’s Order of War

Posted by PR_Flak in Maverick PR Business, Video Game Public Relations      Comments Off

Sep
10

OOW Multiplayer Mode Gets a Hands-On Showcase in San Francisco to Online Outlets

We love going to San Francisco.  Really we do.  We’re there quite a bit.  In fact, besides cities that I’ve lived in, I would say I have spent most of my time in San Francisco.  To be fair, the entirety of my knowledge of SanFran revolves around a small, 5-block cluster centered on the W Hotel, The Palomar, The Argent (now Westin), 1UP and GameSpot… and then a tiny peninsula in South San Francisco.  So… I’m no tour guide.

View from the Westin: all I ever see of SF. If you squint, you can see Alcatraz . I've never been there.

However, I do know where everyone works.  So when Maverick was tasked with whisking Order of War up to San Francisco for a showcase of the game’s cool multiplayer mode, we had a pretty good idea of what we needed to do.  So off we went!  And, we had a great time talking about the game and facing off head-to-head with some of the industry’s top PC journalists in the two maps we were showing.  I can’t say I was victorious often, but it was a blast either way.

Take a minute to check out some of the coverage that has hit online since our tour.  You can find it here on IGN, GameSpot, Kotaku, GamesRadar, 1UP and Worthplaying.

I utilized my rocket artillery with much ballyhoo, but alas, most editors shamed me anyway.

And keep an eye out for the multiplayer demo – 2 levels of WWII strategy action are going to drop on your head this coming Tuesday – 9/15!!

Maverick Partner Matt Frary Shares Thoughts on Review Copies with CrispyGamer

Posted by PR_Flak in Maverick Thoughts      Comments Off

Sep
10

Today on CrispyGamer, writer Kyle Orland explores the somewhat complicated processes that video game PR people use in determining who and what outlets receive free review copies of games.  It’s never an easy decision to cut someone off the list, that’s for sure, but there are time when you really don’t have a choice.

Maverick PR Partner Matt (me!) is quoted throughout the article, sharing his thoughts based on a decade of deciding where to send these “free goodies.”

Disclaimer: these “free goodies” may not be as fun as you think, as they may require you to spend 10-20 hours completing a game and another 5 or so hours crafting a “review” full of useful facts, features and moments of note, all supported with insightful opinions and references; at the end of which you will be strong-armed into choosing a – let’s face it – somewhat arbitrary number or letter to designate the “fun” you experienced while slogging through the aforementioned 10-20 hours of gameplay…

Anyway… read on at this link and enjoy the article.  A quickie quote from the article featuring Matt:

“Some publishers … still refuse to expand their list and stick only to the ‘big’ players in the space,” Frary said. “This is really too bad, and they end up missing a massive, and growing, segment of the market. … [It's] particularly frustrating because when you look at the smaller videogame sites out there as a whole, they have a huge voice that reaches a critical audience that the larger outlets sometimes miss.”