What You Get for $200: Eight Years Behind One Creator Mailing
A few devs asked me on Discord this week what the "Creator Mailing - full base" package really is. Fair question. $200 for one email sounds like a lot until you see what sits behind that email, so here's the whole story.
What is left of 60,000+ addresses collected since 2018, after the cleaning.
Addresses we are sure belong to key resellers or bots. Never mailed again.
With my own games, one creator and one editor at a time.
Founder, Mad Octopus
It started in 2018, with my own games
I've been publishing games since 2018. From day one I wrote to creators and media myself, game by game. Titles like Phantom Doctrine and Aircraft Carrier Survival went out to a list I was building at the time: every streamer who answered, every YouTuber who covered something, every editor who asked for a key.
Then I published more games and kept investing in that list. Friends from the industry shared good contacts with me along the way. Over the years it grew past 60,000 addresses.
A list is not something you build once
Here's the part nobody tells you: a contact list starts dying the day you stop looking after it. People change addresses, channels go quiet, inboxes fill up. Send to a stale list and you pay for it fast. Bounces, blocked mailboxes, your mail lands in spam, and the next mailing does even worse.
So the list gets cleaned all the time. Every address is checked with paid verification services, and that alone costs me a few hundred dollars a round. On top of that comes finding new sources and new contacts, people who actually play and stream games right now. All in, it's well over $1,000 so far, plus the hours.
That's also why "60,000" isn't the number that matters. After all the cleaning, today the base holds 24,879 active creators and 2,250 press contacts. Over 2,000 addresses that bounced and 1,361 creators who unsubscribed are gone. A smaller list of people who really read their mail beats a big list of dead addresses every time.
The blacklist is the most valuable part
Anyone who has sent keys to "creators" knows what happens next: some of those keys show up on key resale sites a few days later.
Our base carries a blacklist of close to 3,000 addresses I'm 100% sure belong to key resellers or bots. It's updated all the time. When a developer running a mailing on our site flags a claimer that looks wrong, we check the channel and if it's junk, it's cut from the entire base the same day, not just from that one campaign. The details are in how we ban Steam key farmers.
I'm sure a few resellers are still hiding in there. But we keep removing them, and compared to other services I used in the past, it's night and day. Back then I used to find a lot of my own keys on resale sites. Since I started investing in my own base, that has dropped massively.
Every game needs its own plan, but the last month is different
My rule is simple: every game starts with a good trailer. That's what catches the eye of media and players and starts building wishlists. Then playtests or a demo. After that the dates and the order depend on the game.
You don't put the best off-road tyres on a Ferrari just because they're the best tyres. Same with marketing: every game gets its own schedule.
But about a month before launch, there's no such thing as bad reach. That's the moment I use the biggest mailing I can, to reach as many people as possible. I do it for my own games, and that's exactly what the full-base mailing is for.
So what's in the $200
That $200 is eight years of my work building this base, available to your game. In practice:
- One mail to the whole active base
Right now about 25,000 creators who play and record games.
- Your copy, your game
You write the subject and the intro in the Campaigns tab. The mail is built around your Steam page.
- You approve it first
A [TEST] mail lands in your inbox and that is the final email. Nothing goes out before you OK it.
- Pick the day
Set the start date to your demo or launch day and nothing goes out earlier.
- Replies go straight to you
Set your own reply address, so creators answer you directly.
- Keys from one pool
Creators claim keys themselves. You see who claimed, with their channels, and can flag anyone who looks off.
- Free demo or no keys?
That works too. The mail gets a "play the free demo" button instead of a key.
- Two weeks of launch streaming
A looped live stream of your game from my own server, two weeks around your launch. Get in touch, send me the footage and I hook it up.
What the full-base waves brought so far
Per wave, every time to the whole active base.
Across the full-base waves sent in August, September and October 2026.
Mostly limited by how many keys the developer put in. The last wave ran out of its 198 keys within hours.
No mailing can promise coverage. Creators decide what they play. What I can promise is that your game lands in the inbox of people who really stream and record games, and that we keep cleaning out the ones who don't. If you want to know how many keys to prepare, read how many Steam keys a creator mailing needs.
Not ready for the full base yet? There's also a curated mailing to the 1,000 best-matched creators for $19.90.
FAQ
How many creators does the $200 mailing reach?
The whole active creator base: 24,879 creators as of October 2026. The full-base waves so far delivered between 22,000 and 25,000 mails each.
Can I choose the day it goes out?
Yes. Set a start date and time when you configure the mailing. Nothing is sent before that moment, even after approval.
Do I need Steam keys?
Not with a free demo or a free-to-play game: the mail then carries a button to your store page. With keys, creators claim them from one pool and you see who claimed.
How do I get the two-week launch stream?
It comes with the $200 package. Write to me on Discord or at info@madoctopus.fun and send the gameplay footage. I set up the looped stream for your launch.
You'll find both mailings in the Dev Hub under Services. Questions? Ask me on Discord or write to info@madoctopus.fun.