Most studios treat their press outreach like a numbers game and blast a 400-contact spreadsheet they bought or scraped. It almost never works. A tight, hand-built game media list of 60-100 people who actually cover games like yours will out-perform a generic megalist every time, because the hit rate on relevance is what moves coverage. Here's how to build one from zero without spending money you don't have.
The instinct is to write down PC Gamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, IGN and call it a day. That's backwards. Start with 8-12 games that are genuinely comparable to yours, in genre, art style, scope, and audience. Not the games you wish you were like, the ones you actually compete with for the same player's attention.
Then go find who wrote about those games. Search the game's title plus 'preview' or 'review,' read the coverage, and note the specific byline, not just the publication. Coverage is the proof a writer cares about your corner of the medium. A staff writer at a mid-size outlet who has personally covered three cozy farming sims is worth ten editors-in-chief who never touch the genre.
- Pull comps that match your scope (a $15 roguelike, not a 60-hour RPG)
- Search 'game title + preview' and 'game title + impressions' for early-stage coverage
- Note the writer's name, not just the outlet
- Check whether they cover your platform Steam-first PC coverage differs from console
You don't need a paid database to start. The most reliable sources are free and public, and they bias toward people who are currently active rather than contacts that went stale three years ago. A name in a directory means nothing; a byline from last month means they're working and reachable.
- Recent articles on your comps the byline is your contact
- YouTube and Twitch search for your genre, filtered to channels under ~100k for realistic responses
- Curators on Steam who feature games in your niche
- Bluesky and X many writers list their beat and email in bio
- Newsletters and Discords where your genre's audience already gathers
Resist the urge to add the biggest names first. The outlets with 5 million monthly readers get hundreds of pitches a week and cover maybe two indies a month. Mid-tier sites, niche blogs, and genre-specific creators have smaller reach individually but a far higher chance of saying yes, and their audiences convert to wishlists at a better rate.
A media list is only as good as its worst entry. Before a name goes in, confirm three things: they cover your genre or platform, they're still active (posted in the last 60-90 days), and you can reach them through a channel they actually monitor. If you can't tick all three, leave them out. A list of 70 qualified contacts beats 300 maybes.
Find emails through the outlet's tips or contact page first, then the writer's personal site or social bio. Avoid generic info@ addresses where you can. When a writer publishes a public email or a 'pitch me' link, use it exactly as instructed those people are telling you the door is open.
A spreadsheet is fine. Fancy tools are optional. What matters is that the columns force good behavior and track outreach so you don't double-pitch or lose threads across a multi-month campaign.
- Name, outlet, beat/genre, and best contact channel
- Personalization angle (the one-line 'why them')
- Tier A for high-fit priorities, B for solid, C for opportunistic
- Status not contacted / pitched / replied / covered / declined
- Last touch date so follow-ups stay timely, not annoying
Sort by tier, not by reach. Your A-tier is where you spend real personalization effort; your C-tier can take a lighter, templated touch. This is also what lets you scale the list over time instead of rebuilding it for every announcement.
Writers change beats, leave outlets, and go freelance constantly. A list built for your announcement will be 20% wrong by launch if you don't maintain it. Revisit it before every beat announcement, demo, Next Fest, launch and prune dead contacts while adding fresh bylines you've spotted covering new comps.
Treat it as an asset that compounds. The relationships you build on game one carry to game two, and the writers who covered you before are your warmest leads next time. That's the real payoff: not a single coverage spike, but a network you own.
Once your list is qualified and tiered, the next move is the pitch itself and a clean set of assets a tight press kit, a polished Steam page, and a clear hook tied to wishlists. If you'd rather start from a proven framework than from a blank spreadsheet, our PR Starter Pack lays out the list, the assets, and the outreach cadence in one place.