Overview
- Successful pre-launch marketing requires sustained visibility over months or years through strategic content release, genuine community engagement, and transparent communication that builds trust rather than relying on single viral moments or massive advertising budgets.
- Games like Hades and Baldur’s Gate 3 succeeded through different approaches, but all shared authenticity, respect for audience intelligence, and leveraging existing reputation to create passionate advocates who naturally promoted their games.
Introduction
Pre-launch marketing can make or break a game’s commercial success, but few studios execute it masterfully. While many games generate initial buzz only to fade before launch, or launch with impressive quality but no awareness, certain titles demonstrate how strategic, sustained marketing turns anticipation into sales.
Examining successful pre-launch campaigns reveals patterns worth replicating. These aren’t always the biggest budgets or flashiest trailers – they’re strategic approaches that build momentum, cultivate communities, and ensure launch day arrives with eager audiences ready to buy. Here are three games that executed pre-launch marketing exceptionally well, each offering distinct lessons for developers at any scale:
Hades: Community-Driven Marketing Through Early Access
Supergiant Games took a radically different approach with Hades, eschewing traditional big-reveal marketing for a community-driven strategy built around transparency, iteration, and genuine player relationships developed through Early Access.
What They Did Right
Early Access as a Marketing Strategy
Hades launched into Early Access in December 2018, making the game playable two full years before its 1.0 release. Players who bought and enjoyed Early Access became passionate advocates who naturally promoted the game within their communities.
Transparent Development Updates
Supergiant released major updates approximately every month during Early Access, each with detailed patch notes explaining what changed and why. This transparency made players feel like development partners rather than customers, creating deep investment in the game’s success.
Listening & Iterating Visibly
The developers actively incorporated community feedback, and players could see their suggestions implemented in subsequent updates. When the community requested features, balance changes, or quality-of-life improvements that made it into the game, those players became invested advocates who felt ownership of Hades’ success.
Building Through Reputation
Supergiant leveraged its existing reputation from Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre. Fans of previous games naturally followed Hades’ development, and the Early Access model allowed them to experience and promote it long before launch.
Streamer & Content Creator Friendly
The game’s roguelike structure made it perfect for streaming – every run was different, death wasn’t punishing but progress-driving, and the narrative unfolded gradually. Content creators naturally gravitated to Hades, generating organic visibility without paid promotion.
The 1.0 Launch as Validation
When Hades finally hit 1.0 in September 2020, it wasn’t launching cold – it was validating two years of community building. Launch became a celebration with an existing player base rather than an introduction to skeptical audiences. The game immediately achieved critical acclaim and commercial success because it had already proven itself to thousands of Early Access players.
The Lessons
Hades proves that you don’t need massive marketing budgets or viral trailers to succeed. Building genuine relationships with players, being transparent about development, and creating a game worth talking about organically generates marketing momentum that paid advertising can’t replicate.
For indie game studios, especially, this approach is replicable. Early Access or public beta programs turn your development process into marketing, create invested communities, and provide valuable feedback that improves your game. The key is genuine engagement and a game compelling enough that players want to share it.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Strategic Early Access & Community Investment
Larian Studios’ approach to Baldur’s Gate 3 combined elements, such as building long-term hype while deeply engaging the community through Early Access. They also added unique elements that demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of their specific audience.
What They Did Right
Targeting the Right Audience Precisely
Larian understood their target audience – CRPG fans, D&D enthusiasts, and players who valued deep narrative and choice. Every marketing beat spoke directly to this audience rather than attempting a broad appeal. The marketing celebrated complexity rather than simplifying it for the mass market.
Early Access with Substantial Content
When Baldur’s Gate 3 entered Early Access in October 2020, it included roughly 25 hours of content – Act 1 of the game. This wasn’t a bare-bones demo but a substantial experience worth the asking price, making Early Access feel like genuine value rather than paying to beta test.
Panel from Hell Events
Larian’s “Panel from Hell” livestream events became destination viewing for fans. These weren’t sterile marketing presentations but entertaining, information-dense shows featuring developers playing the game, revealing new features, and demonstrating genuine enthusiasm. The events built community around shared viewing experiences.
Patch Updates as Content Events
Major Early Access updates became marketing moments. Each patch added significant content, such as new classes, races, spells, and story beats, with Larian treating each like a mini-launch with trailers, patch notes, and community discussion. This kept the game in ongoing conversation across three years of Early Access.
Leveraging Divinity
Larian used Divinity: Original Sin 2‘s critical acclaim to build confidence in Baldur’s Gate 3. Players trusted Larian to handle the Baldur’s Gate license respectfully because they’d proven themselves with Divinity.
Community Feedback Integration
Larian actively incorporated player feedback from Early Access, and the community could see their influence on the game. Changes to UI, balancing, game character creation options, and quality-of-life features came directly from player requests, creating invested advocates who promoted the game because they’d helped shape it.
The Full Release Phenomenon
When Baldur’s Gate 3 launched fully in August 2023, it became a cultural phenomenon, achieving unexpected mainstream success. The three years of Early Access had built a passionate community that evangelized the game so effectively that it transcended its niche CRPG audience to become one of 2023’s biggest releases.
The Lessons
Baldur’s Gate 3 demonstrates that respecting your audience’s intelligence, providing substantial value in Early Access, and genuinely incorporating feedback creates marketing through player investment. The game succeeded because Larian didn’t just build hype – they built a community that felt ownership of the game’s success.
For studios, especially those working in traditionally niche game genres, this shows that deep engagement with your specific audience beats broad, shallow appeals to everyone. Know who your game is for, speak their language, and involve them in development. The resulting advocates market more effectively than any advertising campaign.
Conclusion
Successful pre-launch marketing isn’t about massive budgets or viral moments—it’s about understanding your audience, building genuine relationships, maintaining a consistent presence, and creating experiences worth talking about. Hades proved that transparent, community-focused development creates organic advocacy. Baldur’s Gate 3 showed that deep engagement with your specific audience generates marketing momentum that transcends budget limitations.
The approaches differ dramatically, but the principles remain consistent: be authentic, engage genuinely, provide value, and build community rather than just an audience. Whether you have AAA marketing budgets or indie constraints, these principles create pre-launch momentum that converts awareness into sales when launch day arrives.
FAQs
1. How long before launch should pre-launch marketing begin?
It varies by game scale and approach. AAA games are often announced years in advance (Cyberpunk 2077 was announced eight years before launch), while indie game studios typically begin marketing six months to two years before release. Early Access games like Hades and Baldur’s Gate 3 effectively made their entire development period into marketing by releasing playable builds years before the 1.0 launch.
2. Is Early Access an effective marketing strategy for all games?
Early Access works best for games that benefit from iteration and community feedback – roguelikes, strategy games, simulation games, and CRPGs. It’s less suitable for narrative-driven linear games where spoilers matter or games requiring complete, polished experiences at first impression. The game must offer substantial value in Early Access form, not feel like paying to beta test.
3. What made Hades’ community-driven approach so successful?
Supergiant treated Early Access players as development partners rather than customers, incorporating feedback visibly, updating monthly with substantial content, and being genuinely transparent about development. Players felt ownership of Hades’ success because they’d helped shape it, turning them into passionate advocates who naturally promoted the game within their communities.
4. Can indie game studios replicate these marketing strategies on limited budgets?
Hades’ and Baldur’s Gate 3’s approaches are particularly replicable for indies – both relied on community building, transparency, and genuine engagement rather than massive advertising budgets. Early Access, consistent development updates, authentic communication, and creating games worth talking about generate organic marketing momentum without requiring paid promotion at an AAA scale.
5. What’s the biggest risk of long-term pre-launch marketing campaigns?
The primary risk is creating expectations that launch quality can’t meet, as demonstrated by Cyberpunk 2077’s troubled release. Long marketing campaigns build enormous hype – if the game doesn’t deliver on promises, backlash is proportionally severe. Sustained marketing requires either confidence in delivering what you promise or very careful expectation management throughout the campaign.