I don't know about any other industry as we only cover Software / Gaming but the big three check and amend every single press release before they are seen by the masses!

However, this doesn't happen at all within the PC market, and I can't comment on Apple - but knowing them I would imgaine everything is checked, and double checked.....

I'm 100% sure a lot of iPhone devs put out PR for their games without even notifying Apple, mostly because I know a lot of them. Though, I guess, app store stuff is a little different than your major Apple releases. As for PC, I'd wager that's just absolutely impossible to police, but I bet Valve has their hands in PR for Steam in some capacity.

I have been on both sides of this fence and built up a press release machine at Codemasters that ensured that the content of our releases would be seen by tens of millions of people.
The golden rule is to only issue a press release that is a real story and that you are certain will be published. Never waste a journalist's time with a weak press release.
You need to get the release out in all languages and territories simultaneously to get the maximum impact. It is impossible to support it with too many resources (screenshots, renders, videos, photos etc). And it is good to embed urls so when it is C&Ped you get the link back.
I have written many articles on the subject!
A few press release tips #0 http://www.bruceongames.com/2007/08/22/embedding-urls-in-press-releases/
#1 http://www.bruceongames.com/2007/08/30/a-few-press-release-tips-1/
#2 http://www.bruceongames.com/2007/09/06/a-few-press-release-tips-2/
#3 http://www.bruceongames.com/2007/09/14/a-few-press-release-tips-3/
Using/creating celebrities: http://www.bruceongames.com/2007/09/17/gaming-desperately-needs-celebrities/

I think that is enough for now!

I suddenly remind myself of Mezmer Games' press releases for Stalin vs Martians. It's an absolutely horrific game, but their press releases are fantastic, totally playing on the fact that people didn't like the game. They're written as Soviet propaganda pieces. Each time there's been an update or a price cut or whatever, they include press quotes, but "censor" them, blacking out certain section of the quote. So something like "Stalin vs Martians is one of those games that could have been brilliant" becomes "Stalin vs Martians is XXXXXXXXXXX brilliant." Outstanding, memorable stuff.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. NO.

BAD BRUCE.
BAD.

NO.

Edit: Also, your examples are a scientologist, a fad that's now a target for lulz in the blogging circuits (Victoria got her implants...deflated!), a whore slut that rode her money to fame (also, she was at E3 publicising a game about her that she couldn't even remember the name of), and a guy that committed suicide. At the very least, aim higher. Not like Warren Ellis being attached to Cold Winter helped sales of that game.

Oh, here's another one:

Never ever use DigiDelivery to give me assets. That shit sucks. It may well be my least favorite thing about EA PR as otherwise they're pretty decent at just keeping it short and to the point.

 @ Bruce

Thanks for those links. I am already a reader of your blog but I hadn't seen those older posts. Some pretty good advice although I sense you got somewhat caught up in the moment with #2 and your idea to include video with every release. Has YouTube taught us nothing? Video in the wrong hands is dangerous!

@ Lewis

I had a look at the site for Stalin vs Martians. I love how they have a consistent voice for all their marketing. This is one of the things that bothers me most about press releases. Marketers (should) work hard to ensure that every part of a game's marketing is based on the same creative idea and tone of voice, yet PR teams seem set on presenting a corporate voice completely at odds with the content.

I think at this point it's worth making a distinction between the PR approach used by the huge, publicly-traded publishers who have disclosure and corporate governance issues to think about, and the PR needs of a small, privately-owned developer. I see no reason or benefit in a small independent developer trying to act like and present themselves as MegaCorp Industries. 

Anyhow, I've been doing some more reading, and have another question to ask you guys.

Question 4: Embargos. Does letting a journalist know a big announcement in advance allow them time to prepare, research background, ask questions and so on or are embargos seen as another form of press manipulation? As games journalists, do you still commonly receive releases under embargo or is that a hang-over from the time of monthly print deadlines? With blogs, Twitter, and the "publish anything" approach used by some sites, would embargos still be honoured? You can assume that this is only in relation to mega-announcements rather than the release of new screenshots or something minor.

Many of you have mentioned the flood of email and press releases you get every day without expressing a preference for what works best for you. I have a background in direct marketing so to me, sending out a press release feels like a spray-and-pray approach. If I know a journalist has written about my game before and I have that journalist's email address it feels much more natural to me to get in touch direct and share our latest news over email. I'd be very interested to know what works best from your side.

Question 5: Do you prefer to get all press release content from one source like Marketwire and just scan the headlines, or would you rather get an email direct from the developer? What about RSS; would a developer's press room feed be preferable to email?

Thanks to everyone who has replied to this thread so far. It has been very helpful and interesting to hear your thoughts and the range of issues discussed. 

4. There are two types of embargos: The type meant to hide something crappy and the type meant to make sure the developer's thunder doesn't get stolen. Both are understandable but the former is just silly. If you don't want people to know something, just don't tell them. I suppose there's a third, which is still related to print - particularly when it's exclusive to GI until publish or something, but it's another case of "don't tell them til you're ready."

5. Unless it's a game I desperately want more information on, I tend to ignore anything that doesn't come directly from developers. As I said, PR is largely unnecessary in the gaming industry in its current form. This is something EA is very good at actually (despite their crap use of digidelivery) as they assign people to certain games to do personal contact and information gathering on the PR end.

4) Er, this was two questions, really.

i) Embargos are fine as long as they're fair and consistent, and as long as you're honest in who you're embargoing and why. When a well-hype game was released recently, we were told that "no online publications will be permitted to publish their review until 9AM BST on 5th July." Then reviews started appearing on the 1st, from a whole host of websites. I got in touch, and was told US sites were allowed to review from the 2nd, as that's when release dates were, and any reviews I'd found on the 1st must have been pre-agreed exclusives with bigger publications. I later found out, through a writer at a not particularly well-known site, that they had been allowed to run their review early on the condition that the PR could have text approval. Nonsense that needs to be stopped.

As long as it's not that sort of thing, I have no issue. Yes, it often does help to prepare in advance, so you can be live as soon as people start posting about whatever thing it happens to be.

ii) Direct, personal contact with the invitation of a new spin on the news. If you send me a press release, I'm probably not that interested unless it's something huge. Send me a press release and an invitation to interview, or hands-on the game, or whatever, and I'm much more likely to pick up on it, whatever it is. But it's often infuriatingly closed, end-of-the-road stuff. "Here's your news. Now go away and run with that until we're ready to tell you more." No thanks.

Ultimately, no one likes getting emails that have obviously just been spammed out to everyone in the world. Put my name at the top. Ask me how I am. I do this when I get in touch with you; have the courtesy to do it back. (By "you," I'm referring to the whole, generalised PR machine.)

5) Er... kind of covered above. Phone me, email me, post it to me, whatever. But get in touch with /me/, not your email group or RSS feed. Seriously - make us feel special and we'll probably give you coverage.

Oh - number one tip for being good at games PR:

Be Introversion.