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Jamey Stegmaier Offers a New Vantage for Gamers

W. Eric Martin
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For several years, U.S. publisher Stonemaier Games has announced games, then shipped them to direct buyers shortly afterward, with the title then hitting retail outlets shortly after that. In short, the publisher has stock of the game in hand before even announcing it, which means Stonemaier can't fail to deliver the game on time.

For Vantage, though, Stonemaier is taking a different approach. In the Stonemaier newsletter, designer Jamey Stegmaier writes, "Vantage is nearing the end of the playtest process and will start production later [in 2024], but the journey to bring this game to life is too big to cram into our standard 10-day pre-launch reveal."

Board Game: Vantage

Maybe when you read this description, you'll understand why Stonemaier is taking a different approach for this 2025 release:
Quote:
Vantage is an open-world, co-operative, roguelike adventure game for 1-6 players that features an entire planet to explore, with players communicating while scattered across the world. With nearly eight hundred interconnected locations on cards and over nine hundred other discoverable cards, the world is your sandbox.

You begin each game of Vantage on an intergalactic vessel heading towards an uncharted planet. After crashing far from your companions, you have complete freedom as to how you explore, discover, and interact with the planet. You view your location from a first-person perspective, and you can communicate with and support other players, but you are separated by vast distances, so you can see only your current location.

Vantage is not a campaign game, and it is completely self-contained with no expansions — just a few accessories like metal coins.
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Corey Konieczka Invites You to The Mandalorian: Adventures

W. Eric Martin
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U.S. publisher Unexpected Games has announced its next game release: The Mandalorian: Adventures, a co-operative design by Corey Konieczka and Josh Beppler for 1-4 players.

Board Game: The Mandalorian: Adventures

In a press release announcing the game, Konieczka writes, "I've always dreamed of making more Star Wars games, and The Mandalorian was the perfect inspiration. I think we really captured the spirit of the show in a compelling way, and I can't wait for folks to play the game!"

Here's an overview of this Q3 2024 release, followed by a trailer that shows off bits of gameplay:
Quote:
When offered a lucrative job, a lone bounty hunter begins a journey that will put his skills to the test and redefine his world.

Board Game: The Mandalorian: Adventures

The Mandalorian: Adventures allows players to experience a new part of the Star Wars universe on their tabletops. Navigating unique maps and missions, players must co-operate to accomplish their goals and avoid defeat. Play as one of eight unique characters, each with their own deck of cards and strategies that will help you fight enemies and solve dilemmas to complete mission objectives. All of the action takes place in an illustrated map book as players recreate iconic moments from season 1 of the hit Disney+ series. With an intuitive system that's easy to teach, the game grows with new rules, components, and mission types added over time – some even featuring a hidden traitor mechanism...
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Teasers for Australis, Luthier, Purrballs, Multiple Exits, and The Devil's Advocates

W. Eric Martin
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• Throughout April 2024, German publisher KOSMOS has been teasing its late 2024 game releases on Instagram, and in addition to what I covered in mid-April 2024, KOSMOS has announced five more titles, starting with Australis, a 2-4 player game from Leo Colovini and Alessandro Zucchini that bears this short description:
Quote:
Stand your ground in the East Australian Current where you have to make your way as a sea turtle!

Board Game: Australis

You have a chance of winning Australis only if you have a wide range of strategies. Choose the right dice cleverly to form growing schools of fish and settle corals on different coral reefs. At the end of each phase, you will compete with your dice in an exciting contest.

Which of you will be the best in this ecosystem of incredible diversity?
Inka and Markus Brand's EXIT: Das Spiel series of escape room games will expand by three titles, the first two of which are co-designed with daughter Emely Brand:

EXIT: Das Spiel Family – Schloss Gemeinstein/Mission Candyland, in which 2-4 players aged 8+ represent "a cool team of animal superheroes" that forms a secret club to solve riddles.

EXIT: Das Puzzle – Die Bibliothek der Träume ("The Library of Dreams"), in which any number of players first construct a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, then use the details in the image and the included story to solve seven riddles.

EXIT: Das Spiel – Adventskalender: Das Intergalaktische Wettrennen ("The Intergalactic Race"), in which you help "Team Santa Claus" in a race across space.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• Finally(?), we have Adventure Games Family: Dimension Fünf-Sieben ("Dimension 5-7"), the newest title in the narrative-based, co-operative Adventure Games series from Matthew Dunstan and Phil Walker-Harding, with Jan Cronauer being co-designer on this title that's aimed at players aged 8+ instead of the usual 12+.

• In March 2023, I wrote about Luthier, the second title from Paverson Games following its 2023 debut with Dave Beck's Distilled.

More than a year later, in preparation for a July 2024 crowdfunding campaign, Beck revealed the final cover of Luthier, and artist Vincent Dutrait has outdone himself:

Board Game: Luthier

• In a January 2024 post, I mentioned that Rio Grande Games had an upcoming title from Tom Lehmann and Matt Leacock titled "Meep Crisis". RGG's February 2024 newsletter had a new, far more geeky title for this release: The Trouble with Purrballs.

• Speaking of Tom Lehmann, he says that the next Res Arcana expansion is due out in Q4 2024, with online development work for Res Arcana: Perlae Imperii being underway for playing on Board Game Arena.

• U.S. publisher Fort Circle Games hosted its first gaming event, Circle DC, in early April 2024. I followed pics of gaming and prototypes from afar, and the one that caught my eye most was Mar Hepto's The Devil's Advocates, mostly because of the theme...although I'm hoping that the treatment is mocking rather than serious given how ludicrous the "Satanic panic" was and how foolish its spinoff moral panics still are today.


• At GAMA Expo 2024, I spoke briefly with designer Bennett Payne of new publisher B Field Games, and he gave me an overview of Magneterra, which he plans to bring to Kickstarter.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Magneterra mock-up at GAMA Expo 2024

The short take on the game is that you move figures around the board to battle monsters as well as other players, with the long-term goal of claiming the magnet from the tallest pillar on the game board (which sits in the middle front of the image above). As you can see in the video below, your figures are magnetic, and when you move next to a pillar, the magnet on top of it will jump onto your head(!) — but you are not tall enough initially to claim the magnet atop the tallest pillar. You must travel the board to claim other magnets, possibly stealing them from others, until your magnetic strength is strong enough (and tall enough) to yank the winning magnet down onto you.


• In May 2024, info will be spilled about the item named below. Will it consist of more than a scented plastic playmat? We'll see...

From gallery of W Eric Martin
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New Walls around a Larger Orléans

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Orléans
We have a late entry for my April 22 post about giant collector's editions with new material, with German publisher dlp games announcing a tenth anniversary edition of Reiner Stockhausen's Orléans.

The appropriately named Orléans Jubiläumsbox includes the Orléans base game, the three large exapnsions — Invasion, Trade & Intrigue, and The Plague — all eight Ortskarten expansions (Neue #1-5 and Promo #1-3), and three new Ortskarten tiles, along with the dice to make use of them.

Unlike most of the items included in that earlier post, Orléans Jubiläumsbox will not be crowdfunded. Instead dlp games is taking pre-orders on its website for delivery late in 2024, with a note that this item will not be available through retailers, but might show up at SPIEL Essen 24 should the publisher still have copies available.

Anyone wanting a more on-brand "Hundred Years" edition of Orléans must wait until 2114...

Board Game: Orléans Jubiläumsbox
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Wed Apr 24, 2024 5:07 pm
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Construct the City of Chandigarh, and Perform Rituals in Pagan: Fate of Roanoke

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• U.S. publisher Capstone Games will release Pagan: Fate of Roanoke at Gen Con 2024 in August, marking the North American debut of this two-player asymmetric game from Kasper Kjær Christiansen and Kåre Storgaard that German publisher Wyrmgold released in 2022 following a crowdfunding campaign in 2021.

Board Game: Pagan: Fate of Roanoke

Here's an overview of this design:
Quote:
The essence of this game is a witch's struggle against a witch hunter. As the witch strives to complete a ritual of renaturation, the hunter tries to discover her true identity among nine villagers. Each turn, the two players use their action pawns on active villagers to draw cards, play cards, and gain influence. Each player has their own variable card deck of fifty cards; with these cards, the witch can brew powerful potions, improve their familiar, and cast enchantments and charms, while the witch hunter enlists allies, claim strategic locations, and ruthlessly investigates the villagers.

As the witch, your objective is to collect enough secrets to perform a ritual so potent that the entire region will fall under your spell and Mother Nature will reclaim the island. As the hunter, you gather all the allies and support you can muster to bring the witch to justice before her fatal ritual comes to fruition.
Wyrmgold has released a handful of expansions for Pagan: Fate of Roanoke that introduce new scenarios, introduce new villagers, and allow for deck customization, and Capstone notes that it will release Pagan expansions in the second half of 2024.

• Capstone Games has partnered with German publisher Spiolworxx to release new releases from that German publisher in North America, with the first three titles to appear being Raising Chicago by Matt Wolfe, EPOS: A Gentes Game by Stefan Risthaus, and Dolcissima Vita by Giansimone Migoni.

Board Game: Raising Chicago
Board Game: EPOS: A Gentes Game
Board Game: Dolcissima Vita

• What's more, Capstone Games will release Uwe Rosenberg's Tangram City in North America in April 2024, with Pirates of Maracaibo from Ralph Bienert, Ryan Hendrickson, and Alexander Pfister debuting at Gen Con 2024 ahead of a Q3 2024 retail release.

• U.S. publisher Barrel Aged Games debuted in 2017 with the golf-style card game Stool Pigeon that it's now licensed in five countries, and at Gen Con 2024, it will debut two games in the U.S. that it has licensed: the trick-taking game Fruitoplay from Romaric Galonnier, Luc Rémond, and Explor8 (covered here in September 2023), and the tableau-building, card-comboing game Plantopia from Daryl Chow of Origame.

Board Game: Tangram City
Board Game: Pirates of Maracaibo
Board Game: Fruitoplay
Board Game: Plantopia: The Card Game

• In January 2024, I covered two upcoming titles from Spanish publisher LudonovaFlatiron, a SPIEL Essen 24 release from designers Isra C. and Shei S., and a new edition of Junk Art from Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim — but Ludonova has another game hitting the market earlier than those two: Toni López' Chandigarh, which was released in Spain in early April 2024 and which Asmodee will release in North America on May 24, 2024. Here's an overview of this 2-4 player game:
Quote:
In 1951, the Indian government commissioned the renowned architect Le Corbusier to design a new capital for the state of Punjab. Thus, Chandigarh was born.

Board Game: Chandigarh

In the game Chandigarh, players in the role of urban planners are in charge of building this modern city from scratch. They will construct buildings, try to take advantage of buildings constructed by others, use the abilities of the different municipal employees, and try to position themselves in the key locations of the city, all with the aim of achieving the patterns of the plans they have chosen. Whoever scores the most prestige points wins.

In more detail, the city of Chandigarh is represented by a 4x4 grid of sector tiles, with each sector having multiple plots. These sectors intersect at junctions, with the edges of these tiles creating streets between the sectors. You each start with a project card that shows an arrangement of buildings, along with two different colored buildings from the four colors available; your architect starts on a junction in the city.

On a turn, you can move your architect up to the total numbers of footprints on your active project cards, stopping at each junction (if you wish) to place a building from your reserve on an empty plot next to a street that's adjacent to the junction you occupy. If you occupy the final plot of a sector, place one of your supervisors on this tile. Alternatively, on a turn you can choose a new project card from the display, placing it on the left or right side of your row of active project cards and taking buildings from the reserve based on the card you just placed and the card adjacent to it. If you now have four cards in a row, you immediately score the card at the opposite end of the row from the card you just placed. Score the points listed on this card each time the pattern on it occurs in the city.

Board Game: Chandigarh

Four specialist tokens start in the corners of the city, and if you construct a building of the specialist's color in the sector where they are located, you gain the power of that specialist for the remainder of the game and move them to a different sector. Each specialist has six different abilities, some that score you bonus points and others that give you special powers during play.
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Wed Apr 24, 2024 7:00 am
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Trek Into The Unknown, Reload Bolt Action, and Revive Rackham

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Star Trek: Into The Unknown – Federation vs. Dominion Core Set
• U.S. publisher WizKids is bringing Star Trek to game tables once again, but instead of a design that focuses solely on combat, as with Star Trek: Attack Wing, the game attempts to cover more aspects of the Star Trek universe.

Here's an overview of the 2-6 player game Star Trek: Into The Unknown – Federation vs. Dominion Core Set, which is designed by Max Brooke and Michael Gernes and due out in July 2024:
Quote:
Teleport to the bridge of the most legendary starships from Star Trek as you launch an epic adventure across the galaxy!

Star Trek: Into the Unknown features the most detailed Star Trek ship models in tabletop gaming, all designed to scale. Large ships like the U.S.S. Enterprise or the Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser will tower over the smaller ships, and all come pre-painted to an incredible amount of detail.

Board Game: Star Trek: Into The Unknown – Federation vs. Dominion Core Set
Miniature on display at GAMA Expo 2024

Traverse headlong into the unknown where you'll negotiate and fight alongside iconic characters using your quick wit and tactical maneuvering to overcome complications and challenges. True to Star Trek, research and diplomatic actions and not just combat have lasting impacts on the game, causing missions to evolve in surprising ways.

Choose your officer, deploy your crew, explore the galaxy, navigate anomalies, position your ships to strike, or negotiate terms with the enemy. Players will instantly immerse themselves as the egalitarian Starfleet or as the oppressive Vorta and Jem'Hadar as they decide how to handle tense mission objectives and unexpected complications.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Preview kit on the table at GAMA Expo 2024

Embark on a journey to remember through an extensive campaign narrative. Your decisions matter, and they affect the outcomes of your unique story. With upcoming expansion featuring new missions and new ships to command, Star Trek: Into the Unknown is dedicated to delivering an expansive universe to your doorstep.
Warlord Games and Osprey Games have announced a third edition of Bolt Action from designers Alessio Cavatore and Rick Priestley for release in September 2024. Here's an overview of this miniature game system, which has more than three dozen expansions to date:
Quote:
Bring the great battles of World War II to your tabletop with Bolt Action. Strike out from the beaches of Normandy towards Germany. Sweep across the deserts of North Africa in lightning raids. Battle the enemy and the sweltering heat in the jungles of Asia and on the islands of the Pacific. Fight doggedly from street to street in Arnhem, Stalingrad, and Berlin.

Board Game: Bolt Action
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Battle of the Bulge
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Market Garden
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – The Western Desert

Whatever your preferred style of play or your historical interests, the diverse army and scenario options will allow you to build a force that fits. Field everything from standard rifle platoons to heavily armored tank forces, fast-moving reconnaissance patrols, and even artillery units.

Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Stalingrad
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Mariana & Palau Islands
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – D-Day: US Sector
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Italy: Tough Gut

This third edition features refined and updated rules and starter army lists to get new players straight into the action. Seasoned veterans, meanwhile, will find new tactical depth in the detailed force composition mechanics and a wide variety of fresh challenges in the scenario generation system. Rally your forces, study the terrain, and prepare for battle — the fight continues!
• French publisher Monolith Board Games — which has released several miniature-heavy games since its founding in 2016, such as Conan, Mythic Battles: Pantheon, and Batman: Gotham City Chronicles — has acquired all of defunct publisher Rackham's assets, announcing this development as follows:
Quote:
2024 is a year of rebirth for many universes, from the forces of Light, Fate and Darkness readying their forces anew in the seething kingdom of Arklash, to the struggles at the galactic fringes of another universe, warring in Ava and Damocles.

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have acquired all the universes developed by the late Rackham. These universes have been by our sides for a long time — and will now be with us for many years to come, complete with new adventures!
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Designer Diary: Evil Corp.

Jérémy Ducret
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Board Game: Evil Corp.
1. The General Idea

February 2021: My game Daimyo: Rebirth of the Empire comes out in stores, which paradoxically leaves me with a big gap in my schedule. I need to quickly find a project that excites me to occupy my free time. Unfortunately, no old prototype seems worthy of interest to me now.

Starting from a blank sheet, I'm going to try to make the game I want to play:

Idea 1: Deck-building with alternating activation.

I want to offer confrontational deck-building (Star Realms-style) but more strategic in the way of playing the cards. I don't want to "empty" my hand every turn, but the order of play of the cards has great importance and is strongly influenced by the actions of my opponent. This naturally results in the idea of creating an alternating action system in which after drawing five cards, each player plays one card alternately until their hand is exhausted before drawing again and starting a turn again. This should bring about the desired action/reaction feeling.

Idea 2: A very tactical game in which each action is a strong dilemma.

I want to get closer to the feeling of the Legend of the Five Rings-style confrontation TCGs, one of my best gaming memories. I try to remember what I liked so much about this game: a constant tension that came from managing timing and priorities. I want a game in which timing is essential, in which we will delay an action in order not to be countered, a game in which we will try to offer a target to an opponent to make them play actions that could counter us in order to be able to play our showpiece quietly. Also, I would like us to be able to use the cards in different ways to offer choice and dilemma. The card will necessarily be of interest for its power, but it must be able to be used in other ways at the same time. I don't know yet how...

Idea 3: Not a deck-building game, but bag-building.

One day, I ordered some coin capsules, thinking it would make interesting hardware for a game. I wondered whether this hardware would be relevant for this new prototype. What is initially a material desire quickly influences the game design because using round 2cm tokens allows me to quickly consider having a board and different locations that take up little space. I wrap this concept up quite quickly with the previous idea: these locations could offer an action or a bonus, a bit like a worker-placement game. I am therefore going with the idea of having several colors of tokens (in place the cards), colors that will mainly be used to define on which location they can be played. It’s taking shape...

Well, I don't have a game, but I know precisely where I want to go and the main idea is very clear:
confrontational bag-building with alternate activation, timing management, and priority management.

2. From the Idea to the First Tests

I gave birth to a first prototype quite quickly. I'm going with a space opera atmosphere. (Who knows why? It's not at all a theme that fascinates me.) The goal will be to conquer planets (plateaus) to dominate the galaxy. The planets will have to be conquered over several turns to create the feeling of "I lost the battle but not the war", while allowing players to abandon positions for a while, then return to them later. To take the planets, I will use a tug-of-war mechanism. Whoever has the most strength at the end of the turn wins the effect of the planet, then advances the conquest marker, and at a certain level, the planet is definitively mine and a new planet opens. There must always be several battlefields simultaneously.

I'm going on the principle of having three types of ships (tokens/cards). Each color has a specialization: combat, technology, and purchase. That's good as it comes full circle with the idea of locations that allow effects to be triggered, and it allows strategies to be combined.

I grind it all out and get a first prototype:

From gallery of W Eric Martin
First test at the end of May 2021

I am excited about the test! The feeling I want is already quite present...

...but everything is heavy/complex, there are lots of useless powers, the development part is poorly integrated into the game, and the balance is obviously very random. Also, my partner hates the theme — a bit like me in the end! I do a huge cleansing and switch to a classic medium/fan theme, which is important to be able to put the design through the dozens of tests to come.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Second test on June 1, 2021

The test is super conclusive. There are obviously plenty of flaws, but what I'm trying to check at this moment is the overall feeling, the feeling of how it plays and the interest in the game — and on these points, I am more than satisfied. If only all my prototypes were like that...

At this level, we will say that 80% of the game's mechanisms are present: The bag-building, the four different locations, the tug of war, and the deploy/activate/recruit action triptych. The game now needs to have better balancing to start seeing the flaws more deeply. In any case, we're already having a lot of fun playing it.

3. The "Improbable" Signature and the Final Edition

It turns out that at the end of June 2021 I have to see Benoit from La Boîte de Jeu, publisher of Daimyo. I'm curious to show him this work-in-progress to get his feelings, to know whether I'm imagining things or I actually have something promising. As a Magic player, his advice will be invaluable. At this moment, I'm not thinking about publishing; I'm just happy to have a project that motivates me.

Anyway, at the time, I knew almost no one else in the gaming world. The fact is that the day before seeing Benoit, after a few balancing tweaks and a pretty cool last game, my brain said: "And if he likes it?"

From gallery of W Eric Martin
The presentation to Benoit at the end of June 2021

We test the game, and as it progresses, I think I can see interest in Benoit's attitude. We don't finish the game for some reason, so we play it again the next day. Quite a good sign to want to play again...

After the second playing, Benoit shows a real interest in the game, editorially speaking. We talk a lot about the design, how it could be published, the possible artistic directions, and (obviously) the points to work on. There is no commitment, but we still went very far in the discussion.

Board Game Publisher: La Boîte de Jeu
A few weeks later, La Boîte de Jeu comes back to me to validate this interest and offer me a contract. I am very satisfied to be setting out again on an editorial adventure with a team for whom I have a lot of respect, both personally and professionally.

We found the artistic direction of the game early after deciding to reverse the roles. We will play the "bad guy", and our goal will be to terrorize human villages, with a little quirky side. It takes around three months of intensive work to complete the game's development. During this period, I was able to benefit from the expertise of the publisher to remove all the blocking points in the game. Changes will mainly occur on three major points:

• The beginnings of turns are too often identical => We add the chests to loot and the power stone. This allows for more varied openings and adds tension and rhythm between the players.

• Magic poses a lot of balancing problems => Its management was personal, so we implant the demons to stabilize the balancing and once again bring tension thanks to a "race" effect on their activation.

• The game's increase in power is too slow => We go to eight monsters in the bag (instead of ten), and we reduce the purchase cost of all the monsters to make the game more explosive from turn one.

Most problems are therefore resolved within three months. Game balancing and micro adjustments will then be made throughout the edition, which will last more than a year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank La Boîte de Jeu, who did some crazy editorial work — and a big thank you to Djib and Olivier Derouetteau, who brought the game to life with superb graphic work!

A very striking anecdote: Evil Corp. was the strict opposite of Daimyo on all points. Daimyo took seven years between the idea and its release, whereas Evil Corp. was signed three months after the idea in a version quite close to what the game is today. In short, day and night...

Board Game: Evil Corp.

Now It's up to You!

I hope you like the game. From now on, the game is in your hands; it no longer belongs to me. How will you welcome it? In which configuration will you play it the most?

In any case, for my part, it is a satisfying feeling to be able to offer you a game which is the exact feeling of what I had in mind on the first day.

Jérémy Ducret
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Tue Apr 23, 2024 7:00 am
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BGG's Origins Game Fair 2024 Preview Is Live

W. Eric Martin
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From gallery of W Eric Martin
Given all that happened today — Asmodee becoming (sort of) independent again, Goliath buying Lucky Duck, me gushing about a game that's both new and nearly thirty years old — I almost forgot to publish BGG's Origins Game Fair 2024 Preview.

Thankfully, I caught that oversight in time to meet my self-imposed publication deadline. Go, me!

The preview has only sixty titles at the moment, with more than a dozen of those titles available solely for demo. The Origins 2023 Preview ended up with "only" 124 titles, so maybe I'm halfway done at this point, roughly two months before Origins Game Fair 2024 opens. If so, that would be odd — but also normal, given that the not-yet-live Gen Con 2024 Preview already has more than one hundred listings. That show is the centerpiece of U.S. tabletop gaming events, so everyone's already looking ahead to that show in August. If you're looking to look ahead, too, look for that preview to go live on Monday, June 3...assuming that I remember in time.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Some of the titles you can lay your hands on at Origins Game Fair 2024
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Tue Apr 23, 2024 3:00 am
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Asmodee's Parent Company Embracer Group Will Split into Three Companies

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game Publisher: Asmodee
Asmodee's parent company, Embracer Group, has announced — and I quote — "a transformative step for value creation through a separation of the group into three market-leading games and entertainment companies: Asmodee Group, 'Coffee Stain & Friends' and 'Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends'". (The official names of the final two groups will be announced later, which makes me wonder why Embracer was so rushed as to make this announcement before it knew precisely what it was announcing, but I'm not a business owner who must make such decisions, so what do I know?)

Currently, Embracer Group consists of eleven operative groups:

• PC/console games: THQ Nordic, PLAION, Coffee Stain, Amplifier, Gearbox Entertainment, Crystal Dynamics / Eidos-Montréal
• Mobile games: DECA Games, Easybrain
• Entertainment and services: Dark Horse Media, Freemode (with PLAION also being listed here)
• Tabletop games: Asmodee

But Embracer made a deal in late March 2024 to sell Gearbox Entertainment for US$460 million so that group will soon be leaving, similar to how Embracer sold Saber Interactive for US$247 million in mid-March 2024.

What's left will be reorganized into three groups:

• "Coffee Stain & Friends", described as "a diverse gaming entity with a dual focus on indie and A/AA premium and free-to-play games for PC/console and mobile, with a high degree of recurring revenues", with net sales for the parts of this group over the previous twelve months being SEK 10.9 billion (approx. US$1 billion).

• "Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends", described as "a creative powerhouse in AAA game development and publishing for PC and console, as well as the stewards of The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider intellectual properties, among many others", with net sales of SEK 14.1 billion (approx. US$1.3 billion).

• Asmodee, "a global leading tabletop games publisher and distributor with an extensive studio network and IP catalogue", with net sales of SEK 14.8 billion (approx. US$1.35 billion).

The parent companies of these three groups will be headquartered in Karlstad, Sweden, while Asmodee's operational headquarters will remain in Paris.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Embracer Group is currently listed on stock exchanges as EBCRY, but under this reorganization into three groups, the listing for Embracer Group will be changed to whatever "Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends" will finally be named, and shares of Asmodee and "Coffee Stain & Friends" will be distributed as a dividend to the shareholders of Embracer Group, with the distribution of Asmodee shares taking place within the next twelve months and the distribution of "Coffee Stain" taking place in 2025.

Why is Embracer doing this? The short answer: "it is the assessment of the Board of Directors that the current Group structure does not create optimal conditions for future value creation both for Embracer Group's shareholders and other stakeholders". From the press release:
Quote:
"The Board of Directors, together with executive management, propose to transform Embracer Group into three separate, listed companies. This transformation is an important step in unlocking shareholder value. With this new structure, the three entities will be able to focus on executing their core strategies and leveraging their own strengths, providing more differentiated and distinct equity stories to both existing and new shareholders. After careful evaluation of various strategic alternatives, we strongly believe that this decision will benefit all stakeholders and position us for continued success in the future", says Kicki Wallje-Lund, Chair of the Board of Embracer Group.

"This move has been made with the intention to unleash the full potential of each team and provide them with their own leadership and strategic direction. This is the start of a new chapter, a chapter that I intend to remain part of as an active, committed, and supportive shareholder of all three new entities, with an evergreen horizon. This move towards three independent companies reinforces Embracer's vision of backing entrepreneurs and creators with a long-term mindset, allowing them to continue to deliver unforgettable experiences for gamers and fans across the globe", says Lars Wingefors, co-founder and Group CEO of Embracer Group...

The Board of Directors have concluded the following:

• The entities will have sufficient scale, coupled with clearer operational strategies and financial profiles that enable simplified equity stories to attract a larger pool of investors. Current shareholders can freely decide on their capital allocation between the three entities.

• Each entity will be able to fully utilize its own balance sheet, its own set of financial targets and optimal financing structure and capital allocation strategy that enable their growth ambitions.

• The new structure enables the best possible greenlighting models, portfolios and go-to-market strategies for indie games as well as AAA games through two separate, more focused entities.

• Ongoing and future collaboration around IPs, companies and people will still be enabled and encouraged across the entities on market terms.
What will Asmodee consist of as a standalone company? Here's how Embracer describes it:
Quote:
Asmodee is a leading international publisher and distributor of board games, trading cards and digital board games with 23 fully owned studios and 300+ IPs and constitutes the Tabletop Games operating segment of Embracer Group. As per LTM December 2023, Asmodee generated net sales of SEK 14.8 billion, with Adjusted EBITDA of approximately SEK 2.3 billion, EBITDAC of approximately SEK 2.0 billion, Adjusted EBIT of approximately SEK 1.9 billion, and free cash flow after working capital of approximately SEK 2.1 billion.

After FY24/25 Asmodee has an ambition to grow organically in line with the market, which translates into a mid-single digit organic growth in addition to any acquisitive growth. Asmodee's ambition is also to expand its margins from current levels as a result of an improved revenue mix and continued cost management while maintaining a high cash conversion.

The spinoff of Asmodee with a listing on Nasdaq Stockholm is expected to have value-enhancing benefits through greater focus on its core strategy, portfolio and markets. The ongoing transmedia collaboration around Middle-earth and many other IPs is expected to continue after the completion of the spinoff. As a global leader in board and trading card games, with a proven track-record of profitable growth, Asmodee is well-positioned to build on its strategy and continue to prosper as a standalone entity. The spinoff is also expected to enable Asmodee to quicker resume its value accretive M&A strategy.

23 in-house studios develop tabletop games for all types of players across Social, Tabletop and Lifestyle, including a steady addition of new content to key brands. The catalog of 300+ owned IPs include the beloved board games Ticket to Ride®, 7 Wonders, Azul, CATAN, Dobble, Exploding Kittens, and an extensive number of distributed games and IPs. Asmodee is also developing a wide range of licensed tabletop games based on The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Game of Thrones, Netflix, Lego® and Star Wars™, including the recent successful trading card game release of Star Wars: Unlimited...

Ahead of the initiation of the separation process of Asmodee and in line with already planned governance evolutions, Stéphane Carville, current [Asmodee] CEO, and Marc Nunes, current COO and founder, will join and play active roles in the Board of Directors of Asmodee. Thomas Koegler, a longstanding operational and executive leader at Asmodee and current deputy COO, will in the coming months become Asmodee CEO supported by key leaders within Asmodee.
However, as part of this restructuring Asmodee has entered a financing agreement with JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, SEB, Societe Generale, and Swedbank for a loan of €900 million (US$958 million) that must be repaid in eighteen months, with Embracer noting that this loan "is an important part of the debt refinancing of Embracer Group following its restructuring program, which was finalized 31 March, 2024." Embracer currently has a loan for SEK 8 billion that matures in February 2025, and this new loan will help it refinance the current one.

Importantly, from the perspective of someone who cares about tabletop games over video games, the press release for this agreement notes that "[t]he loan is ringfenced with no recourse to Embracer Group, separating Asmodee's assets and funds from those of Embracer Group, and it is only secured by Asmodee assets." To quote more from this press release:
Quote:
The intention is to continue to deleverage, through both the expected significantly improved Free Cash Flow in the remaining Embracer Group (excluding Asmodee), as well as the proceeds from the divested assets of Saber Interactive and Gearbox Entertainment in the course of FY24/25.

On a pro forma basis as per LTM [last twelve months] December 2023, Embracer Group, including the expected sales proceeds from the divestment of assets from Saber Interactive and Gearbox Entertainment, but excluding Asmodee, will have a Net Debt-to-Adjusted EBIT of around 0.6x. On a pro forma basis as per LTM December 2023, Asmodee will have a Net Debt to Adjusted EBITDA of approximately 3.9x. As part of the transformation and ahead of each separation the full capital structure, including both equity and debt, will be reviewed in Asmodee and "Coffee Stain & Friends" to create the best possible long-term foundation for each entity as a separately listed company.
Hmm, so Asmodee is taking on debt to lessen the burden on the non-Asmodee parts of Embracer? That's my takeaway as a non-finance person who is likely reading all of this material at a surface level. I welcome comments on what I might be missing or misunderstanding...
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Mon Apr 22, 2024 6:42 pm
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Goliath Acquires Lucky Duck Games

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game Publisher: Goliath Games
Board Game Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
Goliath Games, a toy and game company headquartered in Hattem, Netherlands, is increasingly living up to its name. In January 2024, Goliath acquired an exclusive license to all the games marketed under the Funko Games brand, and on April 22, 2024, Goliath has announced the acquisition of Lucky Duck Games, which was founded in 2016 by Vincent Vergonjeanne.

Here's most of the press release about this deal:
Quote:
Jochanan Golad, CEO of Goliath, says: "As a global games business, we see there are two major growth areas in games: (adult) party games and strategy games. Consumers and kidults particularly are playing boardgames like never before; this trend was already there, but the pandemic had greatly accelerated it."

Lucky Duck Games' library of high-quality strategy titles will complement Goliath's existing multi-category catalog.

Golad further expressed admiration for Lucky Duck Games' swift rise in the strategy space. "Vincent and his team have done an astounding job in such as a short time to become a notable player in the strategy games category. We are very impressed by the games they've brought to market."

Vincent Vergonjeanne, Founder of Lucky Duck Games, echoed the sentiment, affirming the shared entrepreneurial ethos between the two entities. "Goliath's entrepreneurial spirit perfectly aligns with ours. This partnership empowers us to continue investing in cutting-edge strategy games while leveraging Goliath's expansive global distribution network to reach an even broader audience of tabletop gamers," Vergonjeanne stated.

Vincent and his management team will continue to run Lucky Duck Games autonomously as an independent studio within the Goliath group of companies, maintaining its commitment to designing and launching innovative strategy games on a global scale.
In the press release, Goliath describes itself as "[n]ow positioned as the third-larger games company in North America", noting that "[o]ver the past decade, Goliath has undergone considerable growth through a series of strategic acquisitions. These moves have broadened its product range and strengthened its international presence."

In a Facebook post about the deal, Vergonjeanne writes:
Quote:
Goliath is a match made in heaven for us. A family owned toy-focused worldwide publisher, with who we found a deep complementary partnership, from our people's skills to the type of products we have learn[ed] to find and publish.

Not only is it the best possible next move for Lucky Duck Games, but on a more personal note this is a meaningful moment for me too.
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Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:45 pm
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