Entertainment website and wiki publisher Fandom has now gobbled up Fanatical, a digital PC games retailer.
This is a huge deal for Fanatical as the codes shop will now be part of a Fandom family, which has over 330 million monthly users. The news release claims that it "will connect Fandom’s gaming fans directly with the games they already love and games they will discover among our catalog of 8,000 digital PC games, eBooks, and eLearning courses from more than 1,000 official publisher and developer partners."
Nothing seems to be changing if you're a regular Fanatical shopper. You will not have to change your account details in the slightest. Even the name and location of the company won't change; it will remain the same and stay in the UK. Redemption periods for codes will not be different either.
Fanatical claims that this acquisition will "grow and accelerate its plans to become one of the world’s best online retailers for digital entertainment products." How exactly the two will work together remains to be seen. With competition like Humble (which currently has a bundle with the Fallout tabletop RPG), GOG, and Steam, that sounds like a mammoth task – but Fandom has a good chance to perform in the marketplace with its huge reach.
With Fandom's cache and likely larger pockets, Fanatical claims that this partnership will bring a larger portfolio of games to its platform in the future.
Fanatical has been an alternative publisher that sells authentic Steam keys to its customers at relatively competitive prices. With dubious websites out there, it's a good place to buy your games and save a bit of money with coupons. They're also known to curate bundles to suit specific styles of gameplay and genre.
The company has a surprisingly long past. It began back in the 1990s as a physical publisher with PC-ROMs before moving on as Bundle Stars as a digital retailer. It was later renamed Fanatical in 2017 and since the storefront's inception in 2012, it has sold over 80 million keys in over 200 countries.
The company recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with big sales on Mega Man 11, Assassin's Creed: Origins, and Resident Evil 3. They also gave out prizes to some lucky winners, such as gaming chairs and keyboards. It had a great sale on Capcom games as well last month.