Brand discoverability in the AI age: AIs are no longer a curiosity, but a key way players learn about games

Martine Saunders is enterprise growth and shopper relations director at the online game information and analysis agency Fancensus.

This text is a part of AI Week.

AI is quick changing into one among the most influential intermediaries between online game publishers and their audiences, with 55% of Fancensus’s gamer panel admitting to having used AI to supply game-related data. The Sport Awards 2025 provided an fascinating, particular alternative for a case research to exhibit how AI platforms are beginning to form discovery, hype, and messaging.

A brand new bridge between manufacturers and players

Fancensus’s case research (AI Engine Observations – The Sport Awards ’25, first revealed December 19, 2025) tracks how three main AI chat platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity) responded to questions about The Sport Awards 2025 earlier than, throughout, and after the reside broadcast, revealing that AIs are no longer a curiosity, but a key gateway by means of which avid gamers learn what’s been introduced, who received, and which titles are creating a buzz. By querying every platform with a constant set of questions over a number of days, the research exhibits that AI does extra than simply repeat headlines, it filters, prioritises, and frames the occasion and the manufacturers that featured.

Methodology: treating AIs like media channels

The case research handled AIs very like one other media supply, operating over 2,000 structured questions throughout three distinct intervals: pre-show hearsay monitoring, live-show response and bulletins, and post-show consolidation. A single rumour-focused query was requested commonly in the run as much as the present, with 9 additional questions protecting bulletins, winners, platform-specific line ups, and viewers sentiment cycled each 5 minutes throughout the livestream itself, persevering with commonly but much less continuously after the occasion. Fancensus’s ultimate report goes into extra granular particulars, but the high-level traits and directional findings are sufficient to know the overarching implications.

Earlier than the present: rumours, leaks, and missed calls

In the days main as much as The Sport Awards 2025, all three AI platforms surfaced a broad unfold of rumoured titles, constantly latching onto extremely mentioned matters akin to Resident Evil Requiem, in addition to different notable high-profile franchises. But the hit price on real reveals remained modest, and every AI continuously blurred the line between “introduced,” “nominated,” and “wishlisted,” underscoring how speculative dialog can simply bleed into perceived truth as soon as processed by means of an AI interface. For publishers in explicit, this pre-show interval highlights each alternative and danger, as reliable teasers can journey shortly by means of AI-mediated chatter, but so can inaccurate expectations and particulars.

Throughout the present: who the machines determined had been winners

As soon as the livestream started, the three AI platforms shortly converged on a handful of defining titles, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 unsurprisingly rising as the dominant reference level throughout all questions and platforms. Frequent queries about “most enjoyable,” “largest shock,” and “what individuals appreciated” repeatedly elevated the identical cluster of games, that means the AIs successfully bolstered a secondary, AI-driven lineup, layered on high of the precise, official operating order. The timing of queries and the place inside the livestream a title featured had some affect, as titles that featured earlier in the present had extra time and due to this fact extra alternative to be captured and resurfaced, strengthening their presence in subsequent AI responses.

After the present: consolidating the messaging

In the 48 hours following the finish of the present, AI responses shifted from real-time seize to narrative and messaging consolidation, with the identical platforms now positioning sure games as emblematic of the present’s legacy. Shock reveals and the polarising Highguard finale had been amplified, whereas some award winners obtained much less AI consideration than their trophy haul would counsel, indicating that memorability in AI outputs is pushed as a lot by discourse depth and distinctiveness as by formal recognition. Mentions of personalities adopted a comparable sample, with hosts, headline performers and standout winners repeatedly utilised as shorthand for the present’s cultural affect.

Totally different AIs, completely different editorial instincts

Regardless of drawing on overlapping swimming pools of press, social, and video sources, the three platforms exhibited distinct “editorial” behaviours. One relied closely on a small set of reference websites, significantly Wikipedia, whereas one other distributed citations throughout a far broader mixture of specialist shops, normal information, know-how media, and user-generated platforms akin to Reddit and YouTube. Moreover, though fragmented by recreation/writer, there have been a few official websites referenced, due to this fact accuracy and completeness of particulars on owned websites are an essential consideration for publishers wanting to make sure their particular messaging cuts by means of. These variations led to subtly completely different hierarchies of games and publishers listed throughout the platforms, that means a title’s prominence can fluctuate considerably relying on which AI a participant occurs to ask. It is also price noting right here that smaller, much less apparent sources can have a robust illustration; figuring out these sources that punch above their weight might assist to push messaging and improve visibility.

Strengths, blind spots, and occasional hallucinations

The case research signifies that, at an mixture stage, the AI platforms are broadly competent at figuring out core winners, main bulletins, and the broad contours of group sentiment. Nonetheless, additionally they present clear blind spots, with pre-show rumours typically misclassified and a few shock reveals under-weighted. As well as, at the least one platform reproduced outdated or completely incorrect data about the occasion’s format, complicated the 2025 present with occasion particulars in press protection from earlier years. For stakeholders, this underlines that AI-derived summaries may be directionally helpful, but are not a substitute for verified reporting.

Strategic implications for publishers and platform holders

For publishers, the findings body AI optimisation as a new frontier alongside conventional press and social media technique. When that includes in a present, being “high of thoughts” for AI platforms depends upon a mixture of clear metadata, sustained protection throughout a number of shops, and powerful post-show dialogue, moderately than awards alone. Verifying repeated messaging and understanding the messaging amplification by way of AI platforms is essential. AI’s mixture narrative notion from throughout many sources may result in adverse narratives unfairly dominating responses and changing into “baked in”. Measuring sentiment and understanding the amplification early is key to making sure the narrative stays correct and related; this will additionally assist to determine sources which will want particular consideration.

For platform holders, the research means that questions akin to “What was introduced for PS5?” or “What was introduced for Xbox Sequence?” are now being answered first by AI methods, making accuracy and platform-exclusive messaging in these channels commercially important.

In direction of an AI-aware playbook

Finally, the evaluation positions AI searches and chatbots as a new class of soppy curator: not official arbiters of style, but highly effective filters that affect which games players hear about and the way they bear in mind exhibits, bulletins, and perceived sentiment. Fancensus believes that is a key start line for a wider programme of “AI visibility” work, geared toward serving to publishers and builders perceive how their titles and types floor in AI responses throughout the lifecycle of a marketing campaign, from preliminary hearsay and reveal, by means of to long-tail discovery and proposals.

As extra players default to conversational interfaces as an alternative of search bars, treating AIs as measurable, optimisable touchpoints will turn out to be as integral to launch planning as trailers, previews, or influencer campaigns.