Sam Healey, the veteran Dice Tower reviewer who has contributed to the channel for much of the last 20 years, has resigned after comments he made blaming Alex Pretti and Renee Good for their deaths at the hands of ICE…
This year's As d'Or sees Flip 7, Rebirth and Toy Battle fighting it out for the main prize, with Arcs, Civolution and Ants competing for the expert game award.
The company added that international toy markets were showing "positive developments" despite global challenges, driven particularly by a growth in purchases for families and adults - with card games among products which "benefited significantly" from the trend.
A long list of more than 20 titles has been whittled down to six challengers for this year: Galactic Cruise, Luthier, Shackleton Base, Speakeasy, Thebai and Thesauros, all of which have been released in Germany since Spiel Essen last October.
CMON announced more IP sales could be on the way alongside making an apology for the delays to its outstanding crowdfunds - some of which are now running almost two years beyond initial delivery estimates.
The company's previous collaboration with Warner Bros Discovery Global Consumer Products saw it launch a DC trading card set in March last year, which was followed in October with the announcement of Legendary: A DC Deckbuilding Game.
When news broke three months ago that board game giant Asmodee had been named manager of the hugely lucrative Middle-earth licence for tabletop games and accessories, questions naturally abounded within the industry about what that would mean for other publishers hoping to create The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings-based titles. Luke Peterschmidt, the tabletop veteran tasked with running the Middle-earth operation at Asmodee, sat down with BoardGameWire at Spiel Essen following the announcement to outline his vision for the IP, what they want from publishers in terms of pitches, and how they hope to prove naysayers of the deal wrong.
A trio of comings and goings from the board game industry for the year so far - if you have news of a new role, hire or job change within the industry that you'd like mentioned on BoardGameWire, please send an email with the details to the editor, Mike Didymus-True, on mike@boardgamewire.com
The publisher, which also makes puzzles, plushies and toys, is best known in hobby board games for critical and commercial successes Quacks of Quedlinburg and Daybreak - winners of the Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel respectively - and Ganz Schön Clever, a Kennerspiel des Jahres nominee in 2018.
The deal comes a month after Codenames and SETI publisher Czech Games Edition signed its first-ever distribution agreement with Hachette - for the UK distribution of its new title Wispwood - after a decade of Asmodee being the sole distribution partner for its titles in the UK.
Leder Games has agreed to sell Arcs and Oath to Buried Giant as part of the shake-up, while keeping hold of its huge-selling star title Root, a game which despite its complexity has broken out of the hobby game bubble and onto the shelves of major retailers such as Walmart and Target.
Company CEO Kevin Rountree said the £6bn business was strongly committed to protecting its IP and respecting its human creators.
Company co-founder and CEO Jamey Stegmaier told BoardGameWire the prevalence of smaller box releases, expansions and re-releases in its 2026 plan was not a response to US tariff concerns or other economic factors.
The French award focuses on new, expert-level eurogame releases from the previous 12 months which have a high replayability, especially those “whose format does not always allow them to apply for one of the many other current awards”.
The War of the Ring publisher has added Europe to its distribution partnerships with Poland's Galakta Games, Italy's Tabula Games, Czech Republic-based Albi, and France's Nuts! Publishing and Don't Panic Games, for which it already has distribution deals in North America.
Homebrew designs and fan-made rules and variants have been part of hobby board gaming for as long as the pastime has existed - and some publishers have leaned into utilising design work from fans in their published games. BoardGameWire spoke to Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games, Alex Hague from CMYK Games, and Jackson Pope from Eurydice Games about how they've approached bringing in fan-made ideas for their titles.
The surprise cancellation comes four months after the Root and Arcs publisher unveiled the crowdfunding campaign for Take, a risk management and negotiation game which sees players executing a series of heists.
The dramatic demise of the decade-old publisher comes after it raised more than $19m from board game crowdfunding campaigns in just five years - including in excess of $5.6m from over 28,000 backers for its most successful Kickstarter, Darkest Dungeon: The Board Game, in 2020.
Candice Harris has been an ever-present, vivacious stalwart of the BoardGameGeek front page for more than five years, bringing her infectious enthusiasm and joy for gaming to visitors through her news posts, appearances on live play video series Game Night! and three years helming the BoardGameGeek podcast. But she's now turning her video and presenting talents to the publisher side by showcasing and marketing designs from GMT Games, best known for its complex historical, wargame and strategy titles. Harris spoke to BoardGameWire about her plans for expanding GMT's audience, the challenge of making complex game more accessible, and breaking assumptions around historical gaming and its designs.
Codenames and SETI publisher Czech Games Edition has signed its first-ever distribution agreement with Hachette, as the French publishing giant continues to expand out its European board game distribution operation in the face of competition from industry heavyweight Asmodee.
SETI's indomitable 2025 awards run also includes the Deutscher Spiele Preis - the biggest community-voted board game award in Germany - Dice Tower Awards for game of the year, best strategy game and best new designer, and the Golden Geek heavy game of the year and thematic game awards.
