Hmm... (A developer's negative experience with 'publisher' Black Shell Media)

I can only find this...

"I’m an indie game developer with a couple games under my belt. As I was about to release my second game on Steam, I decided to look into a partner to help me with the thing I’m terrible at - marketing.

I came across Black Shell Media, a self-proclaimed indie game publisher. Their website looked very nice and professional, and I thought they knew what they were doing. I contacted them, and we arranged a video chat. They claimed to be marketing experts that were super-connected with the games media, and that they would have a team devoted to making sure my game was a financial success. They claimed that they really liked the build of the pre-release build of the game I sent (I later realized this probably wasn’t true, because I had accidentally sent them a broken link.)

They offered to take a percentage of my revenue in exchange for handling all marketing and PR aspects. I asked that, since they’d be taking a cut of my revenue, if they’d be investing anything into the game itself (like many publishers do). They claimed that they don’t do this, and that I should essentially take them on faith - that the marketing they do will more than pay for the revenue they take. At this point, the person I talked to was very friendly and responsive to calls and emails. I felt like they’d be a good company to have in my corner, so I went ahead and signed their contract. I know realize what a mistake I made. Basically their “marketing” is a complete joke. They have no apparent traction with any of the game media sites, and I have no evidence that they did much marketing at all. The only youtubers that posted videos of my game were small ones that I contacted personally. I had zero coverage on any gaming news site. I didn’t even get a story on the smaller sites that had covered my previous title. One person live streamed my game on Twitch, for about an hour. Again, this was someone that I personally contacted. I would have been better off doing the marketing myself, rather than relying on them.
I looked into other games that they published (something I should have done at the outset had I been smart), and noticed the exact same pattern. Basically Black Shell Media’s “great marketing insights” boiled down to sending out thousands of tweets to people who probably don’t really exist.

As you can imagine, without any exposure, my launch did not go well, from a financial standpoint. It briefly appeared on the Steam “All New Releases” list and then slipped away. The next day, I emailed Black Shell Media asking about their continuing plan to market my game (since they were planning to take a portion of my revenue indefinitely), and they said they would continue to send out tweets and press releases. When I asked to see who they contacted in the media, they said they had no obligation to share this information with me, as this was their trade secret. They refused to tell me a single person who they actually sent a press release to, and as far as I know they didn’t send any at all. When I mentioned how absurd it was that they wouldn’t send me any evidence that they had marketed my game (other than the tweets), they said that this was stipulated in the contract.

After that, I didn’t hear from them in over a month. They didn’t respond to me on skype nor answer my emails. Extremely frustrated, I sent them an email threatening to take my case to the public, and they said that would be a violation of the contract I signed with them, and that I would be subject to legal action.

So I decided to post here anonymously so as not to be sued by my own publisher for speaking the truth. I’d like to share more information, so please PM me if you’d like. At this point, my game is a total commercial failure, though I’m extremely grateful for the few people who did purchase it, especially those who gave me good feedback that I can use on future games. I’m happy to say that this experience hasn’t broken my spirit, and I’m planning to release another title in July without Black Shell Media’s “help”."