Community Management in Shooter Games
Traffic acquisition marketing doesn’t work well for shooters; it requires a more nuanced and complex approach. Shooter fans want full immersion in the culture and community of their games. World-renowned titles like Call of Duty and Fortnite focus more on building strong brands and actively supporting their communities rather than on attracting player traffic. Andrei Naumov, Cubic Games Studios‘ chief marketing officer, explains how the company maintains engagement and retention in Pixel Gun 3D’s player communities.
Andrei Naumov
Understanding Shooter Game Audiences
Over the past eleven years, Pixel Gun 3D’s audience has changed; many of the kids who played it during its early days have grown up and stopped playing. Now the game has a monthly audience of 4 million people and a total base of 300 million.
The audience of Pixel Gun is young: approximately half of the players are under the age of 18 and often play on their parents’ devices. Being a part of the game’s community is crucial for them. If players don’t like something, they will simply leave the game and won’t come back.
The unpredictable behavior of young gamers complicates user acquisition and algorithmic targeting. That being said, Pixel Gun 3D scales with a large volume of organic traffic that comes from searches in app stores for game titles or relevant keywords.
Key Strategies for Effective Community Management and Player Retention
Cubic Games does comprehensive marketing work that includes classic user acquisition, organic growth, and working with current and former players. Over the years, the company has refined several strategies for the management of Pixel Gun 3D’s community:
1. Building Strong Communities on Different Platforms
With 1.5 million YouTube subscribers, nearly half a million Instagram followers, and close to 200,000 members on Discord, these platforms are our hubs for engagement.
Discord is the most dynamic among them: users here actively participate in discussions, help us develop the product, and generate new ideas. For our part, we give players access and insight into the complicated technical aspects of development.
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok drive brand awareness and temporary engagement. Here, we share memes, viral challenges, and educational materials, like video guides and articles.
2. Partnering with Influencers
Pixel Gun 3D has a network of creators and bloggers who grew up with the game and are now reviewing and acting as brand ambassadors. That’s not a paid partnership; it’s fully organic and their honest opinion. Young audiences trust influencers because they speak their language and interpret game updates and changes. Creators help mitigate negative coverage during update releases as well. They receive support and promo opportunities from us, like affiliate programs with exclusive bonuses.
The most famous influencers are adults, despite a major portion of their audience skewing younger. However, bloggers like Mr. LaPrune understand the needs of the community and speak effectively to a broad range of ages.
3. Social Media Activities and Talent Development
The company organizes a range of activities to increase outreach on social media, like tournaments, challenges, and giveaways with in-game currency and exclusive merchandise. They deepen engagement and offer unique incentives players can’t find elsewhere.
Now we have plans to organize a talent contest in which we will offer the winner a content creator position. They will be responsible for streaming the game, creating video content, and promoting it on their social networks.
4. Educational Content
Cubic Games has a lot of how-to content dedicated to game features, updates, and so on. We have launched a video game portal featuring in-depth articles, player forums, and exclusive offers. This resource will accumulate and centralize all information about the game.
Players’ Retention is a Core Focus
Right now our main priority is not expanding our audience but retaining it. We have seen a major increase in our audience on social networks and within the game community. The more new installs we receive, the more community subscribers we will have.
To engage current users more, the company communicates with them through influencers or content, explaining why we release updates and the benefits they can expect. Inside the game, we can interact with players through the built-in community inbox feature and send them details on recent updates, for example.
For new releases, our most dedicated fans sometimes receive early access, so we can get feedback and fix issues quickly. In turn, we can use feedback from these fans to boost interest in the content release update on social media with posts or activities on this topic, and running giveaways during the launch window.
Of course, the company provides full support: the community always has questions to be answered and technical issues to be addressed, and we manage negative coverage. While entirely new content is broadly welcomed, changes to existing material are usually perceived negatively. We have to explain why we released this update. In such cases, we talk with players through opinion leaders because they have the trust of the audience.
Industry Lessons and Future Plans
In general, when some new information about game strategies appears in the media, we try to take the most workable ideas we like and implement them.
For example, recently I read an article about Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine doing community outreach before the game’s release. It’s a small thing, but one of many ideas we’ve picked up from our peers and aim to put to work.
Looking ahead, Cubic Games is excited about launching the video game web-portal, a centralized hub where players can access multiple social hubs, game information, and exclusive content in one place, further improving community focus and retention.
Final Thoughts
To grow the community’s audience for a shooter game, you cannot just market a product, release it, and assume the job is done. You have to deeply connect marketing with the community and products. For example, if you encourage a player to exit the game to participate in a contest, it must be a logical and motivating activity that aligns with the game’s flow.
Player engagement should be consistent and recognizable traits across all touchpoints — from ads to in-game interactions and social media. Make them perceive these interactions as a part of a journey within the game.