Integrated Media Company, an investment firm better known as the parent company of Gamespot, Fanatical, Fandom, and more may add a game publisher to its portfolio as Playstack, which released indie hit and Game Awards 2025 Game of the Year Nominee Balatro last year, is being proposed for a sale by the company’s owner Trufin, according to Game Developer.
The sale of the UK-based game publisher was proposed last week on May 21st to VantageCo, Integrated Media Company’s indirect wholly owned subsidiary which is still awaiting approval from Trufin’s shareholders. The sale, if it were to happen, would see Trufin sell its 84.5 per cent stake in PlayStack for £112.4 million or $151 million USD.
“We believe the disposal of Playstack represents a milestone for TruFin and a clear demonstration of our disciplined approach to capital allocation and value creation. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the Playstack team over the last few years and look forward to them achieving future success. IMC is a superb platform for the next stage in Playstack’s journey and we wish the team at IMC well for the future,” TruFin CEO, James van den Bergh said in a statement.
“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,” Playstack founder and CEO Harvey Elliott added.
Getting a bit of déjà vu here, as years ago the parent company of IGN, Ziff Davis made a similar move when it acquired Humble Bundle in 2017, which included its its digital strofront and game publishing arm Humble Games; the latter of which is no more at Ziff Davis but was purchased in March by former employees’ new venture, Good Games Group. So it kind of remains to be seen if this purchase were to go forward, would we see Playstack thrive under new management, or will we have one less option on the market to help indie studios put out their games. We’ll just have to see as the story develops.
