Blackfish Publishing was founded in late 2006 by Matt Bielby, best known for his work at Future Publishing, also based in Bath, UK, where he worked on Total Film, PC Gamer and SFX.

Blackfish's launches were Death Ray, a science fiction and fantasy title intended to go head-to-head with the runaway market-leader, Future's SFX (which Bielby edited from 1995 to 1996) and Filmstar, a general film magazine in competition with Total Film and Empire.

The company logo was a deep sea angler fish, and the corporate motto was We Go Deeper.

In October 2009, it was announced that Blackfish Publishing had split from Rebellion and that both Death Ray and Filmstar would cease production.

Blackfish Publishing is currently in the process of splitting from its parent company, the video game developer and publisher Rebellion, which means that the current issues of Filmstar and Death Ray magazines will, at the very least, be the last for some time.