How to sell to Heads of Operations at Gaming companies
Heads of Operations in gaming are primarily measured on operational efficiency, often quantified by project delivery timelines. They respond to outreach that highlights insights into optimizing resource allocation and streamlining production workflows, especially when addressing bottlenecks that delay game releases or increase costs.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 544 gaming company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- delayed game releases
- high production costs
- inefficient team collaboration
- staff turnover in production
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent game launches
Use industry news sources to find game studios that have recently launched titles. Filter for studios that experienced delays or operational issues during their launch. These companies are likely to be seeking ways to improve their processes and may be more receptive to outreach.
- 02
Research key operational challenges
Dive into forums, social media, and industry reports to uncover specific operational challenges faced by gaming studios, such as high turnover rates in production teams or inefficient project management. Tailor your messaging to address these pain points directly.
- 03
Connect through industry events
Identify upcoming gaming conferences or webinars where these operations leaders will be speaking or attending. Use these events as a reason to reach out, mentioning specific sessions or panels that relate to operational efficiency in gaming.
- 04
Highlight case studies on resource management
Craft your outreach to include case studies that specifically showcase improvements in resource management within game studios. Focus on quantifiable results, such as reduced time-to-market or improved team collaboration, to demonstrate your understanding of their unique challenges.
- 05
Follow up with tailored insights
After your initial outreach, follow up with insights or articles related to operational efficiency in gaming. Referencing specific challenges they may face can help establish credibility and keep the conversation going.
Can gaming companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 544 gaming companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 11.5% of 1–10-person companies against 58.5% of the largest — 47 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Improving game launch efficiency
- Streamlining production workflows
- Tackling operational bottlenecks
Questions
- Why do Heads of Operations in gaming ignore outreach?
- Heads of Operations may ignore outreach if it lacks relevance to their immediate challenges. If the communication doesn't speak to specific operational inefficiencies or recent industry shifts, it risks being seen as generic and unimportant in their busy schedules.
- What common challenges do gaming operations leaders face?
- Gaming operations leaders often grapple with managing tight project deadlines, coordinating cross-functional teams, and ensuring resource allocation is optimized. They also deal with the pressure of maintaining high-quality standards while reducing costs, making operational efficiency a critical focus.
- How can I demonstrate value to a gaming COO?
- To demonstrate value to a gaming COO, focus on providing insights that address their specific pain points, such as case studies on reducing time-to-market or enhancing team productivity. Tailoring your message to their unique operational landscape will resonate more than generic offers.
- What triggers a response from gaming operations leaders?
- A response from gaming operations leaders is often triggered by outreach that highlights solutions to pressing issues like project delays or resource mismanagement. Providing actionable insights or relevant industry trends can capture their attention and prompt further engagement.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
Try it on your site