Integrated Media Company, the parent company of GameSpot, Fandom, Curse, and a number of other brands, is preparing to acquire Playstack, the publisher of Balatro.
This comes from a notice published on May 21 and shared by Game Developer, which states that Trufin Holdings plans to sell 84.5 percent of its interest in PlayStack to VantageCo Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Integrated Media Company, for approximately £112.4 million ($151 million). The decision has not yet been finalized and is still subject to a shareholder vote.
In a statement on Playstack’s website, CEO Harvey Elliott said that while this is an ownership change, “Our team, our strategy, and our commitment to publishing premium indie games remain exactly the same. For now, it’s business as usual.” In addition to Balatro, Playstack is in charge of publishing a number of other games such as The Case of the Golden Idol, The Rise of the Golden Idol, Ak-xolotl, Unbeatable, and About Fishing. Last year, the publisher said it has a “hit ratio” of more than 85-percent, meaning more than 85 percent of its releases have generated a positive return. Balatro itself has sold over five million copies, as of January 2025, and won a number of award nominations and wins including winning Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie, and Best Mobile Game at the 2024 Game Awards and Game of the Year, Best Debut, Best Design, and Innovation Awards at the Game Developers Choice Awards.
Integrated Media Company, itself owned by private equity company TPG Inc., owns 15 different media and entertainment brands, including Fandom, Curse, Screen Junkies, and games media outlet GameSpot, which it acquired under Fandom in 2022. VantageCo appears to be a newly established subsidiary for acquisitions, and it’s unclear where in Integrated Media Company’s organization it will sit.
This is all a lot of fancy proper nouns to say that the company that owns GameSpot will now also own a video game publisher, something we’ve seen before when IGN acquired charity game bundle seller and game publisher Humble Bundle. In 2024, IGN restructured Humble Games, laying off 36 people. While the charity bundle platform remains active, Humble Games has not published a game since. [Disclosure: I worked for IGN Entertainment from 2021 until last month.]
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