The owners of Fandom and Gamespot want to acquire Balatro publisher Playstack

Playstack who published the likes of Balatro, Abiotic Factor and VOID/BREAKER are about to be sold off to the Integrated Media Company group. The deal notes they will be under VantageCo Limited, which is a subsidiary of the Integrated Media Company for a deal of £112.4 million (around 151.47 USD).

For those unfamiliar with Integrated Media Company (IMC) they own the likes of: Fandom, Curse, Screen Junkies, Fanatical, Gamespot, TV Guide and more across a few other industries.

The news was actually announced on May 21st via Playstack owner TruFin's investors page, and confirmed on Playstack's official website on May 22nd as noticed by Game Developer. Harvey Elliott, founder and CEO of Playstack, said in the announcement:

"I’m excited to share that Playstack is entering its next chapter with a new investment partner. In practical terms, this is a change in ownership rather than a change in who we are. Our team, our strategy, and our commitment to publishing premium indie games remain exactly the same.

For now, it’s business as usual.

I sincerely thank TruFin for being an invaluable partner over the past seven years, helping us reach this exciting next step.

I’m looking forward to sharing more about the future with you all soon."

The deal is not actually done yet though. They need Shareholder approval, and their Board are suggesting that they do approve it. A meeting will be held June 8th to seek the needed approval.

Hopefully it works out okay for the staff at Playstack and for the teams behind the games they publish. It does mean more game industry consolidation though, which doesn't often work out particularly well.