Video Game Journalism: How to use Terminals & Keymailer

Last week we took at look at how new game journalists can start obtaining keys from developers for review purposes. Today we’ll be building from this and taking a look at two of the biggest platforms you should be using right now: Terminals and Keymailer.

These two platforms are probably the main websites you’ll be returning to as you request keys for different games. Both of these platforms are for different types of content creators however.

Terminals

Anyone can sign up to this website as an “Enthusiast” to ‘watch’ different games. Watching a game will deliver emails to you from the team about updates relating to that game such as press releases or other useful information. This is perfect for people who are looking to get press releases about different games to build articles from.

To be labeled as “Press/Media” you need to complete a registration form and send that through. It could take a few days to get a response and it may not be the one you want. Getting Press/Media access to the website allows you to request codes from different developers. This doesn’t mean you’ll get all of these keys but the developer will be able to check you out and see if it’s worth sending you a code. When requesting a code, you’re given the option to select the platform and region.

In addition to this, there’s an option to marked as a “Streamer/YouTube Content Creator” for those who create video content instead.

You can submit coverage of different games through the website which alerts the developer you’ve created some content on their game. Even if it’s not a review, this is a good move as it can show how useful your website can be to developers.

Keymailer

This is a slightly different website which is designed around video content creators such as YouTubers and Livestreamers. If your publication has one of these then perfect, you can sign right up. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use the website.

Publishers and developers will send the keys directly to the Keymailer account and requesting a key is a simple button press. After producing some content, it can be ‘tagged’ so that the publisher can see your content on the game. This also helps to build your channel’s reputation and increases the likelihood of being given keys.

Both of these platforms are very useful for content creators however, you need to actually submit coverage to the websites to help bolster your position. Without doing this, the developers can’t see how useful you’ll be to them and may not be willing to give you one of their limited codes.

This post was provided by Clare from Lunawolf Gaming