Surprise Attack marketing agency launches with 12 developers in tow

Surprise Attack, a marketing support company for independent game developers, announced today that it has fully launched its service with a dozen developers already signed up. The company was founded in October 2011 by industry veteran Chris Wright, who has handled marketing campaigns for game publishers such as THQ, Microsoft, Sega, Capcom and Disney. Surprise Attack was launched as a beta trial in October, with the aim to provide developers with successful marketing strategies for their upcoming releases. With this full launch, the company is currently providing services for 12 studios, with the aim to help with the launches of over 20 games during 2012, mainly on mobile and tablet platforms. Studios that are already signed up with Surprise Attack include the likes of ex-EA Visceral team PlaySide Studios, The Voxel Agents, Ignition Studios and Tin Man Games. "One of our key learnings from the beta was that there is huge demand for the kind of services we offer," explained Wright. "We spoke with around 50 developers during the beta period." "A common trend was that they know they need help with marketing their games but a great many don't want to sign up with a publisher -- they want to build their studio brand and have more control over the marketing." "That's where an agency such as Surprise Attack can really work for these teams -- we provide scale, expertise and connections but the developer is always in control and always comes first," he concluded.