A key is the easiest part of PR to get wrong. Studios spend weeks crafting a pitch, then attach a key that doesn't work, leaks early, or gets resold before the embargo lifts. Get the mechanics right and you remove the single biggest reason a curious journalist quietly drops your game.
Build Your Key Inventory Before You Need It
Sending review keys starts in your Steamworks dashboard, not in your outbox. Generate keys under a clearly labeled request so you can track them later, and never carve them out of your launch-day store allocation. Steam lets you request keys in batches, and once you've used a chunk, requesting more triggers a manual review if the numbers look off so plan your volume ahead of an embargo or festival window rather than scrambling the night before.
Decide how many keys you actually need before you ask. A focused indie campaign rarely needs more than 150-300 keys across press and creators combined. Requesting 5,000 keys for a game with 40 outlets on your list is a red flag to Valve and a security liability for you.
- Label every key request batch by purpose: "Press embargo," "YouTube/Twitch," "Festival," "Backup."
- Generate 15-20% more than your list size to cover re-requests and dead keys.
- Keep a master spreadsheet: key, recipient, outlet, date sent, status, coverage link.
- Never paste raw keys into a public Discord, Notion page, or shared Google Doc.
One Key, One Recipient, One Record
The cardinal rule: each key is tied to a named person. When you assign keys individually, a leaked build or an early stream is traceable back to exactly one recipient, and you can revoke that key in Steamworks without nuking everyone else's access. Bulk-dumping a list of keys into an email to ten people means you've lost all control the moment one of them forwards it.
This is also where most embargo breaks happen. A creator who got an anonymous key feels no obligation to your timeline. A creator who knows you personally handed them key #047 and logged it under their name behaves very differently. Accountability is a feature, not bureaucracy.
Time The Send To The Coverage Window
Send too early and the key sits unredeemed while interest fades; the journalist forgets why they have it. Send too late and they can't fit your game into their schedule before launch. For most indie titles, the sweet spot is two to three weeks before the embargo lifts for written press, and a little tighter for video creators who can turn around content faster.
Pair the key with the context the recipient needs to actually play. A bare key in an empty email gets ignored. Include the build's current state, known issues, the embargo date in bold, and a one-line reminder of what the game is so they don't have to dig through their inbox to remember your pitch.
- The redeem instructions ("Steam > Games > Activate a Product on Steam") assume nothing.
- The embargo date and time with a timezone, stated explicitly.
- A short "what to expect" note: length, content warnings, save-wipe risk.
- A direct contact for when the key fails at 11pm before their deadline.
Don't Forget The Press Materials Around The Key
A key unlocks the game, but coverage is built from assets. Link a clean press kit alongside it: logo, key art, 8-12 screenshots, a trailer, GIFs, and a fact sheet with your studio name, release date, platforms, and price. Make it downloadable in one click a zip or a hosted page because no journalist will chase you for a missing screenshot at deadline.
Point them back to your Steam page too, so they can grab the official capsule art and link the store directly in their article. Coverage that links your store page drives the wishlists that actually move your launch, which is the whole reason you sent the key in the first place.
Track, Revoke, And Follow The Paper Trail
Steamworks shows you which keys have been activated and which haven't. Check it. An unredeemed key three days before embargo is a signal to send a gentle nudge or reassign it to someone who'll use it. A key that's been activated and resold on a grey-market site is a signal to revoke it immediately and quietly note that recipient as off your future lists.
Keep the spreadsheet alive after launch. The recipients who redeemed, played, and covered your game are the start of your relationship list for your next title and the ones who burned a key without a word tell you exactly where not to spend effort next time.
If you'd rather not build all this from scratch the inventory, the tracking, the timing a structured PR Starter Pack gives you the templates and the send schedule so your keys land with people who'll actually open them. Whenever you're ready, that's a sensible next step.