Talking as part of a larger Gamasutra feature about PR in games, professionals from Telltale and Destineer have been discussing the post-launch push for digital and retail games, with DLC being singled out as giving "games PR longevity" for titles.

The article discusses the fact that, whatever pre-launch PR plans are in place for your game, possibilities for promoting games after launch are ever growing.

"Episodic content and/or DLC gives games PR longevity. Multiple media touch points are always a good thing, and most gaming sites will cover a new piece of DLC," says Sheila Bryson, director of veteran game public relations firm Spark PR. "This is your opportunity to get the, 'Oh man, I meant to pick that up... now there's even more cool new content... this is going to be money well spent,' reaction."

Telltale Games has built an entire business model around episodic gaming, banking on the multiple windows to promote new content it offers. To compensate for the extended promotion of a series after its first episode is released, they try to announce games as closely to release as possible.

"Since our games are downloadable and release frequently, the closer we can put the announcement to the instant gratification of getting the game, the better," says Telltale's former PR director Emily Morganti. "We'll be in the news for the five or six months that the series is releasing; to also be in the news for six months before this ramping up to the series would be overkill, and hard to pull off."

Deciding how and when to promote a game after its initial release can be difficult, and committing production resources to making downloadable content before a game has been released is a strategy that requires significant investment. Sometimes choosing a license or mainstream-friendly genre can help make PR still feel fresh long after a game has released

"Destineer has released several games with a built-in audience. For example, Iron Chef: Supreme Cuisine was covered heavily by foodie blogs, sites and magazines," says Jeremy Zoss, communications manager for Destineer. That audience is much less likely to be interested in daily gaming news and updates, so while they might have missed the initial wave of publicity, there could still be worthwhile sales generated by a continuing promotional campaign.

"We make our post-launch ad spending decisions the same way Nintendo does: by analyzing the situation to see if it makes sense," says Zoss. "We have from time to time decided to spend money on an already-released game to keep its sales momentum going, and we make those decisions on a case-by-case basis."

Nintendo has an established history of supporting evergreen games that can sustain strong sales over an entire year, or longer. Games like Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, Wii Fit, and New Super Mario Bros. benefit from recurring media buys -- in some cases, years after their initial release. Sony similarly promoted the original Resistance with a new round of print advertisements during the holiday 2007 season, a full year after the game's release.

Episodic games naturally dovetail into this kind of long-term promotional plan as it provides opportunity for repackaging older content into "boxed" sets with bonus features.

"When we bring a game to retail, we're not trying to reach the same people we've been reaching for the past six months with the downloadable releases," says Telltale's Morganti.

"Maybe you didn't want to play Sam & Max when it was released as monthly downloads, but now that you can get it on a DVD with a cover painted by Steve Purcell, and audio commentary with the design team, and an outtake reel, you're sold. And since we come out with seasons of games, like a TV series, every time we launch a new season, interest in the old seasons is renewed."

These comments came as part of a full feature article on Gamasutra, talking to game PR professionals at Electronic Arts, Telltale, and Destineer, and looking at how carefully released information builds interest in today's games.