KRAFTON / PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, FlyQuest, and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures join the crew.

PIRATE ISLES — March 24, 2026 — Psychedelic Games today announced that they have secured the booty — successfully closing a $3.5M funding round in support of their flagship game: Golden Tides, a pirate-themed 4v4 Adventure MOBA that breaks the genre wide open. Led by seaworthy investors KRAFTON / PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, the South Korean game publisher; FlyQuest, the North American esports organization; and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, a strategic venture capital initiative funded by the Arbitrum ecosystem, this round puts wind in Psychedelic Games’ sails, enabling the continued development and the upcoming launch of Golden Tides.

Forget Everything You Know About MOBAs

Where traditional MOBAs lock players into rigid lane structures and lengthy matches, Golden Tides offers dynamic 20-25 minute bouts where crews chart their own course across land and sea to find–and fight over–buried treasure. With a growing roster of 12+ characters across tank, support, and damage roles, aspiring pirates can shoot, swipe, bite, spellcast, and even cook their way through enemy lines. By combining MOBA movement and combat elements with open-world exploration and ship-to-ship naval warfare, Golden Tides delivers a fresh take on a genre whose core structure has remained largely unchanged … until now.

"The MOBA genre created some of the most beloved competitive games of the past fifteen years, but the formula has grown stale," said Devin Richman, CEO at Psychedelic Games. "Golden Tides asks what a MOBA looks like when you strip away the constraints and rebuild around freedom, exploration, and the chaos of naval combat. This funding lets us bring that vision to the players, and we're grateful for partners who see the same opportunity we do."

The Psychedelic Games team brings together developers who have spent years inside some of the industry’s most demanding live game environments, including League of Legends, Smite, Fortnite, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, Call of Duty: Warzone, and ARK: Survival Evolved. They’ve launched games, supported competitive communities, navigated balance chaos, and learned firsthand which decisions age well and which ones sink a project. Golden Tides is the game they’ve crafted after pondering those lessons.

Golden Tides is currently in development for PC, with plans for broader platform expansion following the game’s upcoming launch. Particularly eager pirates looking to get their hands (and hooks) on some treasure before then are invited to sign up for an exclusive Golden Tides playtest, at http://goldentides.gg/playtest.

Introducing the Bountiful Crew of Backers

In a gaming ecosystem where funding has largely dried up, Psychedelic Games took an unconventional path: bypassing traditional venture capital entirely in favor of strategic partners. The result is a cap table built not around financial investors, but instead around organizations that each lend operational value toward Golden Tides’ success.

KRAFTON / PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS
KRAFTON / PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS's investment brings publishing expertise and a track record of identifying games that define new categories. The company's portfolio includes PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, which pioneered the battle royale genre and has reached over 500 million players worldwide.

“Working with KRAFTON / PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS on this deal has been incredible,” said Mason Richman, COO of Psychedelic Games. “Their unwavering focus on creating fun, great games above everything else made the partnership feel natural from day one.” 

FlyQuest
This investment marks FlyQuest's first direct investment in a game studio — a strategic expansion for an organization known for fielding championship-caliber teams across League of Legends, VALORANT, and other major esports titles. The partnership extends beyond capital into long-term collaboration, with FlyQuest bringing its competitive expertise and creator network to support Golden Tides through launch and beyond.

"We believe the future of esports will be built through teams and developers working together early — starting in development, continuing through launch, and growing alongside the game as it matures.” said Brian Anderson, CEO of FlyQuest. “Long-term partnerships like this are essential to creating sustainable competitive ecosystems and driving the industry’s long-term success. We love the competitive potential of Golden Tides and our hope is that this first-of-its-kind investment sets a new standard for how esports organizations and game studios collaborate." 

Arbitrum Gaming Ventures
Arbitrum Gaming Ventures' involvement reflects a shared philosophy: backing innovation over incumbency. As a new type of investor in the gaming space, AGV seeks out teams willing to challenge established conventions rather than iterate on proven formulas.

"We are thrilled to support a team pushing the boundaries of a fresh and compelling style of gameplay," said Dan Peng, Partner at Arbitrum Gaming Ventures. "Golden Tides brings together fast-paced MOBA-inspired controls with a deep and vibrant world for players to explore and plunder. The Arbitrum Gaming Ventures team is proud to champion founders who are driving new advances in gameplay, technology, and the spirit of fun."

The fact that three distinct categories of strategic backers invested independently reflects their conviction that Golden Tides is a true shift in multiplayer design rather than just another entrant in a crowded market.

Learn more about the riches – and dangers – that await you in the Pirate Isles at https://goldentides.gg.

About Golden Tides
What happens when you strip a MOBA down to its most exciting moments and add naval warfare, open-world exploration, and the freedom to win your way? Golden Tides. Two crews. Four pirates each. No lanes. No towers. No 45-minute slogs. A sprawling world of mysterious islands and open sea, and one goal: claim the treasure, claim the victory. Engage in strategic combat on land, then clash ship-to-ship in skillshot-driven naval warfare. Matches last 20-25 minutes, and the meta is whatever your crew makes it: hunt bosses, ambush rivals, or sneak past everyone with an invisibility potion. Sign up for playtest access at goldentides.gg/playtest.

About Psychedelic Games
Psychedelic Games is a Dallas-based game studio founded by brothers Devin and Mason Richman, longtime collaborators in game development, animation, and interactive storytelling. The Richman brothers have assembled a diverse team of designers, engineers, artists, and competitive players from unconventional backgrounds, united by a focus on experimentation, iteration, and fun over trend-chasing or monetization-first design. This creative vision and belief in the team has attracted strategic partners who invested early in both the people and their flagship game, Golden Tides.