How game companies manage their reputation — and why it matters

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This article is part of GamesBeat’s special issue, Gaming communities: Making connections and fighting toxicity.

For developers and publishers, there’s no more important relationship than the one they maintain with gamers. Their community, their intended audience, the consumers of their products — the gamers are all of those things to developers. And maintaining a good bond with them is crucial to keeping their titles in the public eye and having good sales numbers. So how do developers maintain this crucial bond? One of the ways games companies can do so is with careful reputation management.

“Reputation management” is the practice of cultivating a certain image regarding oneself, one’s product or one’s company. In the games industry, that means, among other things, building up a reputation for creating and delivering quality games and supporting the communities built around those games. A company with good reputation management is in a better position to survive various crises, such as a poor game launch or a controversial update.

Conversely, a company with a poor reputation loses goodwill among its audience, if it hasn’t already, and the market will be less willing to accommodate its missteps. It’s also worth noting that reputation management is not a static state — game companies can change their own fortunes. In fact, some of the industry’s success stories come from companies turning their reputations around after a public relations failure.

There are a number of factors that go into a good reputation: A history of solid game releases, a strong connection with community, collaboration with content