Invest more in promoting your game, SNJV advises

Developers are not investing enough money in getting their titles noticed, French trade body SNJV has warned.

Speaking in the results of its latest annual developer survey, the Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo said that studios were segmenting off less than a quarter of the recommended budget for promotion.

"Development studios are only allocating 11.8 per cent of their production budget to promoting their titles," the report stated.

"Although the ratio of promotion budget to production budget can be 1:5 for triple-A games, it should be at least 1:1 for games needing less investment."

Three in 10 of those surveyed are working on a title for physical release, while – unsurprisingly – 100 per cent are looking at digital distribution, making the need for efficient promotion even more vital.

The SNJV did recognise the difficulty in raising money for smaller developers, observing that the average cost of production during 2015 was up 14 per cent from 2014 – rising from €1.26 million (£0.89m) to €1.44 million (£1.01m).

Regarding the French industry specifically, the report estimated that almost three-quarters of French companies are developers – far higher than the 60 per cent average seen across Europe. However, 2015 saw the number of French games in development fall by 10 per cent.

France was touted as one of the top three regions for game development, next to the US and Canada. Roughly 800 new jobs were created by the local sector this year.