Most established video game websites have connections with game publishers that send the reviewers a copy of their newest games for the purpose of review before it launches to the general public. As I'm only launching my site I don't expect to have those sort of links yet, but I'm interested in how these gaming sites establish these connections with the publishers to recieve a copy of their games before general release. If you have a popular video game website do you contact the game publishers yourself to establish some sort of relationship and request early copies of their games for review or how does this work? Thanks!
They will contact you if they think a review would be of value to them. No video game company is going to think, "gee, even though this site is brand new with no readership, they should get an early copy of this game instead of a well known website/magazine" Build your site first, get swag later.
Traffic, traffic, traffic. The companies will ask you how many uniques and page impressions you are receiving and base their decision to send you games based on those figures. Sites that receive up to a million uniques a month get all the games in advance.