Plan of Attack worked on the PR campaign for Thunderful and Chuhai Labs roguelike golf game, Cursed to Golf, from its announcement in August 2021, through to the game’s release a year later. It teed off with a press release unveiling the game and announcing that it would be coming to PC and Switch on August 30th 2021. With almost 170 news hits generated, including from the likes of IGN, GameSpot, PC Gamer, TheGamer, Nintendo Life, Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247 it represented a strong start for the campaign.

On November 10th Thunderful held its “Thunderful World” digital showcase, in which Cursed To Golf had a new trailer. Plan of Attack identified and negotiated with a number of influencer targets for paid and organic coverage via co-streams in preparation for the event to enhance its reach and impact. The event was co-streamed by the likes of Kinda Funny, CohhCarnage and GiantWaffle. In terms of press awareness, we announced the Thunderful World event via a press release that revealed the event would be hosted by Mark Hamill, pre-seeded with key media. After the event, we sent out a media blast summarising the event for the press. All this was designed to get as much attention for the event as possible, along with the games it showcased, including Cursed to Golf. Given the large amount of games that appeared at the event, coverage was split between a large number of titles, but Cursed To Golf still received 70 news hits, including from IGN, Nintendo Life, Rock Paper Shotgun, Gematsu and Hardcore Gamer.

With the game making multiple “most anticipated games of 2022” lists at the end of the year, including for Polygon, Eurogamer and Metro, the opening of the game proved to be successful in giving the game a high-profile in the press and their audiences.

The next major beat for Cursed To Golf was in March where we put out a press release after the game appeared at an Xbox Showcase announcing that the game would be coming to Xbox. This platform announcement and the accompanying trailer generated another 110 articles. Later that same month, the game appeared at the Future Game Show with another new trailer and the announcement of a summer release window, which we again supported with a press release, generating another 115 articles.

We took advantage of the interest generated for Cursed To Golf by following up on these announcements with the offer of a preview build to press and key editorial influencers to generate more coverage of the game, as well as booking appointments for press to play the game at PAX East. This resulted in previews from big outlets like Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Rock Paper Shotgun, Nintendo Life, TechRaptor, Destructoid, Easy Allies, KindaFunny, GameXplain, and The Escapist.

In July, we had another big announcement for the game, revealing that it would be coming to PlayStation and announcing its release date. This generated another 155 new articles, bringing the game back into prominence as we moved into the review campaign.

IGN, Polygon, Rock Paper Shotgun, Vandal, Nintendo Life, Multiplayer.it, Push Square, Game Informer, Destructoid, Bleeding Cool, and Nintendo Everything were some of the outlets which covered the announcement.

In the leadup to the game’s launch, our focus was on getting review codes into the hands of press and a targeted list of influencers identified in preparation for the game’s launch. Thanks to the anticipation we were able to build for the game during the course of the campaign, we were very successful in obtaining review coverage for the game when it launched in August of 2022. The game received 203 reviews, including reviews from key outlets like EDGE, GameSpot, Forbes, Polygon, Pocket Tactics, Nintendo Life, Kotaku, Push Square, and Rock Paper Shotgun. Cursed To Golf was also covered by big influencers like sodapoppin, AngryJoeShow, Ycro, Northernlion, mistermv and Vinesauce.

From a strong start for the Cursed To Golf campaign, we successfully kept the game’s profile high throughout the year between its announcement and release. Platform announcements taking advantage of the media’s interest in the game were strategically spaced out to ensure it got consistent coverage across the media landscape, including with platform-specific media catering to each audience. Ultimately, this paid off in a strong review campaign that saw the game covered by top media outlets and influencers alike.