Time to disembark and tell you all about how we helped PQube launch the beautifully hand-drawn metroidvania Curse of the Sea Rats. Hitting media and earned influencers in North America, we embarked on a successful campaign using our anything-but-cursed PR strategy.

Setting sail, we created awareness and hype around this ‘ratoidvania’ with launch date coverage, securing hits with Screen Rant, IGN, Game Rant, GameSpot and more, then course changed to a review/Let’s Play embargo that was landing earlier than the public launch date. We had to jump on pitching ASAP. Ultimately, we locked in a ton of great interest and shared codes with over 30 different targets within a couple weeks.

Our seeded codes translated to a boatload of review and Let’s Play coverage, totaling 55 unique posts from A-tier to C-tier media and earned influencers, including Game Rant, Reporte Indigo, PlayStation Universe and KwingsLetsPlays. The action-adventure game’s unique art and animation style was praised all around, with Game Rant calling it “gorgeous and evocative,” and Reporte Indigo describing it as “eye-catching.”

We prepared for Curse of the Sea Rats’ April 6 launch day with our rat-tastic pre-pitching, offering the news and release trailer early to our top targets including PC Gamer and Gematsu. We locked in coverage with top-tier targets IGN, GameSpot, Bleeding Cool and more. We could’ve stopped there but we know people love free stuff, so why not set up some giveaways?

With plenty of Nintendo Switch and PlayStation copies, as well as digital codes available, we reached out to gaming media and influencers to see if they were interested in sharing some of the Sea Rats treasure with their audiences. In the end, we coordinated multiple giveaways with media including Bleeding Cool, Cheap Ass Gamer and Slant Magazine, and were happy to provide copies to the winners eager to dive into the game.

All told, we secured nearly 100 unique pieces of coverage throughout our Curse of the Sea Rats campaign, and here’s a look at some top hits:

With another successful launch in the books for our awesome client, PQube, we’re looking forward to what comes next! Don’t forget to check out Curse of the Sea Rats, available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.