Updated July 2026. Originally published December 2015. The publisher landscape has since consolidated substantially — Microsoft closed its $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition in October 2023, Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in July 2022, and Take-Two acquired Zynga for $12.7 billion in May 2022. The PR agency landscape has moved with it.
The video game industry runs on a triangular relationship between publisher, press, and player. The public relations operation sitting between those three parties has become one of the most sophisticated communications disciplines in entertainment. Below is the 2026 rundown of the top video game publishers and the agency partners representing them — plus what changed since the original 2015 version of this piece.
#1 Nintendo
Nintendo remains the highest-margin and most editorially disciplined publisher in the industry — 140+ million Switch consoles sold since 2017 and a franchise stable (Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Splatoon, Animal Crossing) with no direct AAA competitor. Nintendo's global PR runs through a multi-agency structure: Golin for U.S. corporate communications, Cake Group and PrettyGreen in the U.K. across various product cycles, and internal Nintendo of America PR for platform and first-party title communications. Nintendo's controlled information cadence — Nintendo Directs as owned-media broadcasts — bypasses traditional press relations for most product announcements.
#2 Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony operates PlayStation Studios (Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerrilla, Santa Monica Studio, Sucker Punch, Media Molecule, plus first-party first-party teams). Communications runs through internal PlayStation PR alongside agency partners including historical relationships with BBDO New York, 180LA (the original "Team Sony" nickname predates the current structure), and specialist gaming PR agencies for first-party title launches. The Concord launch failure of August 2024 — pulled by Sony within two weeks — became the year's most-cited case study in launch-window communications collapse.
#3 Microsoft / Xbox / Activision Blizzard
Microsoft's video game division consolidated dramatically. The $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition closed October 13, 2023, bringing Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Candy Crush under Xbox Game Studios. Xbox now spans first-party studios including Bethesda (acquired 2020 for $7.5B), Obsidian, InXile, The Coalition, 343 Industries, Turn 10, Playground Games, Rare, Mojang, and the Activision Blizzard portfolio. Global PR runs through Assembly Global (formerly Assembly and Edelman Assembly), Waggener Edstrom for corporate Microsoft, plus The OutCast Agency for platform positioning. Post-acquisition portfolio integration continues.
#4 Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two now sits among the industry's most consequential publishers — Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption), 2K (NBA 2K, BioShock, Borderlands, Civilization), and post-2022 Zynga (mobile). Grand Theft Auto V has sold more than 200 million copies since 2013, making it the second-best-selling game in history behind Minecraft. Communications runs through internal Rockstar PR (famously minimalist — Rockstar's owned-media announcements are the model that Nintendo Directs later formalized) alongside 2K's agency partners. The forthcoming GTA VI launch, scheduled for 2026, is the single most anticipated marketing event in industry history.
#5 Electronic Arts
EA continues to run FIFA (now EA Sports FC after the license split), Madden, Apex Legends, The Sims, and the Battlefield franchise. Historical agency relationships include Wieden+Kennedy for brand-level creative and WPP group agencies for global media. EA's Star Wars Battlefront II microtransaction controversy of November 2017 remains the industry's most-cited case study in the crisis category of monetization backlash — the game's launch loot box economy triggered legislative action in Belgium and the Netherlands and forced a full monetization redesign.
#6 Ubisoft
Ubisoft owns Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, The Division, and Watch Dogs. Cohn & Wolfe (now Burson) held the account since 2009 through multiple cycles. Ubisoft's 2020–2024 period was defined by prolonged workplace-culture crisis reporting, which restructured how the company's corporate PR operation runs today. Star Wars Outlaws (August 2024) and the delayed Assassin's Creed Shadows (rescheduled to March 2025) sit at the center of Ubisoft's post-crisis communications rebuild.
#7 Square Enix
Square Enix runs Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and the Tomb Raider franchise (sold to Embracer Group in 2022 alongside Deus Ex and Crystal Dynamics for $300 million). PR partner relationships have historically included Bender/Helper Impact. Final Fantasy XVI (2023) and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024) both anchored the publisher's PlayStation-exclusive marketing strategy.
#8 Bandai Namco
Bandai Namco owns Elden Ring (the FromSoftware franchise), Tekken, Dark Souls, and the Dragon Ball licensing portfolio. Elden Ring — released February 2022 — sold more than 25 million copies and won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022. Its DLC Shadow of the Erdtree (June 2024) sold 5 million copies in three days and set the modern benchmark for expansion-content marketing. Petrol Advertising has been the long-standing creative agency partner.
The 2026 Structural Shifts Since 2015
Four things changed the shape of video game PR between the original 2015 edition of this piece and today.
Consolidation. Microsoft-Activision Blizzard, Sony-Bungie, Take-Two-Zynga, and Embracer's roll-up (Gearbox, Saber, Crystal Dynamics, THQ Nordic) collapsed the industry into fewer, larger publishers. Agency-of-record relationships now sit at holding-company scale.
The streamer economy overtook press. Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Kick, and TikTok Gaming now drive more discovery than traditional gaming press for players under 30. PR firms rebuilt around creator briefings, Twitch Drops coordination, and clip-editor networks alongside traditional press outreach.
Live-service communications. Fortnite, Roblox, Genshin Impact, and Helldivers 2 all run continuous PR operations. The launch-day model of 2015 has been replaced by year-round communications cadence.
AI visibility. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews now answer purchase-intent gaming queries. Publishers with strong editorial footprints and structured review-platform presence accumulate Citation Share. Publishers without it lose discovery even when their traditional metrics look healthy.
