What are the best and cost effective PR agencies which deals with games and gaming companies?

Appular is very good.

Follow Lloyd's recommendation is my advice but drill down to see exactly what he asked them to do and what results they got for him. Then approach two other similar sized gaming firms that are not direct competitors and ask who they use and why. Anyone who expects instant sales from PR activity is massively missing the point and should be hiring a sales lead generation specialist. I also want to respond to Peter's five point answer, which might be superficially appealing: 1. Fine but: do you even know what a story is, and how to package it for different media outlets? Do you know how to create a story where none apparently exists? 2. True but: when they do, will you know how to approach an interview, what to say/what not to say, how to get your message across effectively? 3. Good people are always hyper-responsive; can you realistically be? Do  you want to and are you able to take every single call yourself, with no filtering? 4. Tinkering with DIY PR by someone who doesn't know the do's and don’ts will potentially damage your ability to build good, strong media relationships. 5. You'll still spend money but you won't see it. Good PR takes time and effort - and there's a cost attached to that somewhere in your business, visible or not.

Not exactly an answer to your original question (though some of the recommendations here are great), but one thing you may want to consider is skipping a traditional press release and instead investing in some videos that showcase your App. They don't have to be expensive or highly produced (though that can help if you have a clever concept), but for editors getting pitched literally hundreds of apps every week often it's helpful to have a quick 2-3 minute explanation/demo to reference so they can quickly decide whether or not to cover the news.

You have to be careful about "old school" PR - just sending out releases to game review sites doesn't help that much online, and is sooooo 20th century. Make sure you actually getting Digital Marketing (e.g. social sharing) as well as traditional PR in any package you pay for. If you don't know how Digital Marketing works, check Neal Patel's awesome https://www.quicksprout.com/blog/ blog. It's time-consuming, but you can do effective DM yourself.I know the founders of Novy (http://novypr.com) and they have an interesting play in doing PR + Digital Marketing...which frequently includes helping clients improve their website's SEO and WPO. In some cases they even found help for the development process (e.g. in Sifter https://sifterapp.com/ ). In conclusion, paid Game PR is more than PR, if you do it right.

I spent 300$ for a PR campaign. I got coverage but no sales. But its a must do thing so you can try any but ask them first at how many places and ppl they will send it to. I used appshout. I still insisit you use all the free tools like PRWEB and gamepress etc. first before going to agency. So that way you can tell them that you are already covered at these places and what new places can tehy promise you. This will work for your good. For UK.Also I have never tried but I guess it can give you good results not sure http://www.steelmedia.co.uk/ . This is because they are associated with pocketgamer. For US you should find out which agency is closely associated with toucharcade. Appsafari is helpful too. I am taking these game review site names here because reviews will really help. You need to really play this smart. Hope this helps

This depends on so many factors. However, if this is a startup gaming company - I highly recommend that you do not hire a PR firm. Here's why: It's important that you learn how to tell your own story. The press would rather talk to you (the CEO/Founder) than the PR person. You personally can respond faster to inquiries than if there's a PR person to filter incoming opportunities. Sometimes the difference between you being in a story in a major publication, or not, is a matter of 60 seconds. Be hyper-responsive. You won't know what you need until you've run your own PR first. You'll save money.

At the risk of sounding like someone who knows how to flack for someone, I'd like to recommend my own media group. We do impact / conversation marketing inside highly effective influence channels. This means we talk to your lead users, and your passionate consumers about the jobs they get done in their lives by hiring your product, and then we tell those stories in every media that makes sense for the mission: from Fast Company magazine (where I blog), to YouTube and the social media platforms. I explain a little bit about the kind of work I do in this interview: http://traveltips.inbed.me/2011/12/06/meet-doug-crets-intelligence-officer-for-the-social-web/ And you can always visit the site where I am a community manager, to get more of our thinking on how products shape the lives of consumers and how consumers shape the lives of products: http://www.therewiredgroup.com/our-approach/ In short, through my work with Klout, and other social media platforms, I am able to be everywhere for my clients, inside and outside of media, online and offline. Happy to talk to you more. Send me a message.

Check out http://Qudos.com to research and find the right PR firm for your company. Free to research and connect. Tones of data to compare find the right firm.Also make sure that you are ready for PR firm, unlike marketing campaigns - much of the work of PR firms is more brand related. https://qudos.com/public-relations/what-to-do-before-you-hire-a-pr-firm

Talk to MPRM in LA, and tell them I sent you.