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Description
An eye-opening look at the rapidly rising growth of gaming and the companies—including Peloton, Burberry, the New York Times, BMW, and Chipotle—that are using games to win over customers.Today's consumers demand more than products—they crave immersive, personalized experiences. As a result, traditional marketing and engagement strategies have lost their edge. The new frontier? Gaming, where over three billion people worldwide spend their time, attention, and money.In Press Play, Bastian Bergmann, cofounder and COO of Solsten, shows how visionary companies are capitalizing on gaming's unstoppable rise. Drawing on exclusive interviews and access to forward- thinking companies—ranging from Adidas and Puma to NASCAR and Unilever—Bergmann provides an insider's view of gaming's transformative power. He also delivers a practical road map for business leaders, offering strategies that range from low-risk partnerships to ambitious, full-scale gaming ventures.Filled with cutting-edge insights and behind-the-scenes stories of iconic organizations and groundbreaking startups, Press Play will help you understand the lucrative world of video games and enable you to offer your customers what they really crave. Read more
Publisher : Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date : September 9, 2025
Language : English
Print length : 192 pages
ISBN-10 : 1647826152
ISBN-13 : 54
Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #409,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #321 in Web Marketing (Books) #647 in Strategic Business Planning #860 in Systems & Planning
#321 in Web Marketing (Books):
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Hardcover
If you’re looking to understand how gaming can drive your business growth, you want to read this book. As someone in video games, it was refreshing to see it so simply said. This is not complex, but if you don’t zoom out, you’ll miss this connection. This is a quick and enjoyable read. I highly recommend this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2025 by Kara Bilkiss
Format: Hardcover
Press Play is one of the most eye-opening books I’ve read in a while about why every organization, in any industry, including nonprofits, should be thinking about a gaming strategy. Brands like Chipotle, WRTHY, Peloton, and many more, are already showing what’s possible when you meet your audience where they spend their time. Bastian lays out practical examples and real strategies for not just engaging your audience, but actually activating them in meaningful ways. If you’re focused on growth, relevance, or the future of brand engagement, I highly recommend giving this book a read.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2025 by Christopher Futrell
Format: Hardcover
A very insightful and engaging read! I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in gaming's transformative power and how companies can leverage this tool. Buy it today!
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2025 by Kristine M Di Bacco
Format: Hardcover
Insightful book written by someone who has been intentionally immersed in the industry. Recommend!
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2025 by Taimur Case
Format: Hardcover
such an imbecilic book. when you start off praising balenciaga and burberry for trying to enter the games market, not to create but for increased revenue. keep that garbage away from creative industries. we dont need or want you leeches. Where the idiocy kicks in: Why this book and these brand moves are deeply problematic: - Gaming isn’t just another marketing channel. The book tends to treat games as a conduit for brands to “get in front of customers” rather than respecting the medium on its own terms. If a luxury brand jumps into a game purely because “players = eyeballs = revenue,” that ignores the core culture, communities, design sensibilities, and expectations of gaming. If you assume you can just slap your logo, your fashion-drop, or your brand story into a “game,” you risk alienating both gamers and your own brand authenticity. -Brands without gaming DNA often come off as opportunistic. When a fashion house like Burberry or Balenciaga enters the games world, and their motivation is largely monetary or image-driven (“we need to engage Gen Z in gaming spaces”), there’s a high risk of superficiality. Gaming communities sense when something is shoe-horned in. The book celebrates these moves, but doesn’t substantially grapple with the question: Should these brands be in games at all, or is their presence harmful to game culture? - Dilution of gaming craftsmanship. The book suggests brands can partner with game developers, or even launch branded game experiences. But if the driving logic is “brand first, game second,” then the result is likely to be a compromised product (or worse: a forgettable one) that serves the brand, not the gamer. That undermines the value of games as creative, interactive media. The point is not “how many brand impressions can we get in a game?” but “how meaningful is the game, how respectful is the experience to players?” - Monetisation over experience. A recurring concern in the games industry is that the pursuit of monetisation corrupts design, community trust, and longevity. The book’s premise: “your company must have a gaming strategy because gamers spend money and time” seems built on the business side, not the creative side. If companies are getting into games simply to exploit attention/time/money, that aligns more with extractive thinking than with respect for the medium. - Lost focus on who this is for. The book argues “every company” needs a gaming strategy. That sounds inclusive, but it’s misleading. Not every company should be in gaming. Some companies are a poor cultural fit with games. Some may better serve their audiences via other media. The book doesn’t convincingly make that nuance a part of its advice. - Risk of brand-washing game spaces. When luxury or non-gaming brands enter games, there’s a risk that games become just another billboard. The book glosses over the possibility that this might degrade gaming spaces, turning them more into shopping malls than interactive worlds. That’s a serious concern—game communities value spaces where immersion, design, story, interactivity come first. If branded interventions dominate, you risk turning rich interactive culture into shallow marketing. Absolute dog water. The author should be embarrassed that he actually released this to the public with the intent of being taken seriously.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2025 by Frank Diaz
Format: Hardcover
This book nails a critical insight: games are no longer an optional arena, they’re where the world’s digital population lives, interacts, and engages. When you compare the thoughtless scroll of social media to the sustained immersion of gameplay, the difference in attention and engagement becomes glaringly obvious. Product placement is hardly new in entertainment. From E.T. and Reese’s Pieces, to GoldenEye and BMW, to Toy Story and Etch A Sketch: brands have long allied themselves with culture. What Bergmann proposes in Press Play is far more strategic: a roadmap to aligning your brand with the gaming world in a way that drives real impact. What I really liked about it is he does a great job of laying out that path, giving real world examples from top brands and companies he's actually worked with both on the gaming side and brand side. Who benefits from this book? If you’re a brand seeking higher ROAS, deeper engagement, and broader reach, this book lays out a thoughtful, structured path for matching your brand to games to drive outcomes. Very clear: must read for brand managers, marketing strategists, and C suite of any B2C company. If you’re a mid-to-large gaming studio navigating the post-2022 IDFA squeeze, you’ll find in Chapter 4 a clear blueprint for audience-first strategies: how to identify and engage the right audience and partner with the right brand, not by guesswork, but by measured alignment between your audience and their non-gaming behaviors and interests. Examples such as Fortnite & Kiehl’s, Genshin Impact & McDonald’s, or Covet Fashion and major lifestyle brands underscore the potential. Bergmann’s credibility is clear, his company works with gaming powerhouses like EA or Supercell. Who this is not for: If you’re one of the many indie developers dropping games to Steam in hopes of viral success and you believe gaming should exist purely as art, divorced from brands, this book may feel outside your worldview or, perhaps, even rub you the wrong way as with some of the individuals here. (5,000 steam games were released this year who didn't even make the $100 necessary to pay for their submission- ouch). In gamer speak, I’d tell them to start with Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth, as Campbell said, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” But if you're a more practical game dev taking a second shot to monetize your next game (if you’re ready for a second shot and want to scale reach for your next game, even modest IP or brand partnerships can move the needle) and Press Play gives you the language and strategy too. After 15 + years in the gaming industry, launching AAA titles and top mobile games, I can say this book offers real, actionable ideas, grounded in experience. Bergmann doesn’t just theorize; he draws from real world brands, real audiences, and real outcomes. If you’re serious about grasping not just who your audience is, but how they live and play and how you can meet them there, you’ll find this book worth your time with some golden nuggets you can apply in your work immediately.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2025 by Jack S
Format: Hardcover
Steve Jobs once said that creativity is just connecting things - and turned that mindset into terrific innovation (and bottom line results). Well, connecting the world of gaming with the world of business is starting to yield great dividends and Bastian Bergmann has provided a roadmap for leaders who are open-minded and willing to explore.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2025 by Alan Iny
Format: Hardcover
I've brought Bastian in as a research partner at multiple companies for 7 years now -- the insights he and Solsten were able to help me discover about my target audiences have been mind-blowing. If you ASK people what they want, they tell you a faster horse. But if you know what drives and motivates them, you can make them the Model-T. The psychographic key motivators we now have for our users really help us speak to them and develop for them in a way that truly resonates, because it's what they really want! If you're looking for ways to connect with your audiences in ways THEY want but YOU didn't know they did -- give this a read and get going!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2025 Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2025 by Amazon Customer