Playstack acquires Magic Fuel Games, the simulation city building experts

New deal reunites EA veterans after a decade apart

Playstack appoints new Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Shrapnell

Playstack, a leading London based games technology business, has today announced the acquisition of San Francisco based remote games development studio, Magic Fuel Games. The acquisition reunites former EA talent after 10 years apart, with Kevin Shrapnell, co-founder and CEO of Magic Fuel Games, taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer at Playstack. 

The acquisition brings together Playstack’s experience in game publishing and Magic Fuel’s prowess in the simulation and city building genres. This new partnership combines the talent of both companies to create entertaining and engaging games for players while strengthening Playstack’s senior leadership team with the introduction of fresh insight and expertise.

Playstack is a leading video games publisher partnering with both external and internal studios to deliver a stack of games that people want to play, priding itself on packing as much fun as possible into its titles. The newly acquired studio will be introducing new games in 2023 and beyond alongside existing Playstack successes Mortal Shell, Survival City and Sniper vs. Thieves. Playstack encourages each studio to be unique and supports them to deliver the best possible results, providing all of the resources needed to help them to reach their full potential. 

Magic Fuel was co-founded in 2015 to focus on the simulation and city building genre by Kevin Shrapnell (CEO), Rajan Tande (CTO), Kip Katsarelis (CPO) and Chi Chan (Head of Art), encouraging player’s imaginations with immersive, living worlds in which to build and play. Playstack’s acquisition of Magic Fuel brings former EA veterans back together after a decade apart. While at EA, Harvey, Kevin, Raj, Kip and Chi worked on many AAA games, including the very popular SimCity franchise. 

Harvey Elliott, Chief Executive Office at Playstack, said: “I have a great deal of respect for the leadership team of Magic Fuel Games having worked with them at EA, and I am delighted to be working alongside them again through this acquisition. The addition of Magic Fuel brings further IP to the Playstack portfolio, adds revenue to 2022 and 2023 operations, and allows us to accelerate our strategic ambitions.”

Kevin Shrapnell, CEO at Magic Fuel Games, said: “We have long admired the way in which Playstack approaches game publishing, and are thrilled to become part of this exciting organisation.  Magic Fuel and Playstack have a shared belief in the untapped potential that simulation-based games present, and we are delighted to be able to add our passion and expertise for this genre to that of the Playstack team.”

With the news of the acquisition, and following a recent significant investment, Playstack is currently recruiting for several roles.

To find out more, visit our website https://playstack.com/

About Playstack 

Playstack was founded on the belief that even the greatest developers need support to be at their best. Its ethos is to discover and nurture the next generation of talent in the games industry. One of Playstack’s recent releases is the critically acclaimed Mortal Shell which sold more than 500,000 units in six months across PlayStation, Xbox and PC. 

Playstack provides development partners with the security and resources that allow them to play to their strengths as creative leaders, entrusting our experienced team to mastermind the marketing and publishing campaign. We support great ideas wherever they come from and we’re completely platform agnostic, from PC to console, mobile and more. www.playstack.com 

The evolution of technology has encouraged Playstack to revolutionise the way ads are integrated into games to create a platform called Interact, by Playstack. Interact seamlessly integrates brands as #PartOfThePlay. Using cutting edge technology, Interact ensures its ads are non-intrusive and are serviced to interested and engaged players without irritation or interruption.