Board game crowdfunding major CMON issues profit warning, says losses could exceed $2m for 2024
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Our headline article this week looks into the financial trouble at crowdfunded board game major CMON, which has just announced a profit warning - saying it could face losses of more than $2m for 2024 due to the cost of living crisis eating into its revenues. The news continues a tricky financial start to the year for CMON, which last month revealed it had terminated a $12m agreement to sell some of its IPs. The company had also tried to bring in two new shareholders last year to invest about $1.39m in the business, but revealed in February that the pair had failed to hand over the money for their stakes, and said it was seeking legal advice on how to cancel the process. CMON’s full annual results are due by the end of March, which will serve to shed more light on the situation.
On the flip side of the coin, we spoke to Stonemaier Games co-founder Jamey Stegmaier after his company’s revenue soared more than 40% to $23.7m last year, after a gamble on a hefty initial print run for new release Wyrmspan led to the game having the best first year for sales in the company’s 13-year history. Stonemaier sold more than 303,000 copies of Wyrmspan last year – a figure that despite already high hopes went “far beyond my wildest dreams”, Stegmaier said.
We also have a feature article from our visit to North America’s biggest board games industry trade show, GAMA Expo, which has been left pressed for space once again after another record attendance. We spoke with executive director John Stacy about what the show is doing to manage its rapid growth, at its current home in Kentucky and through its planned move to a new city.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
Board game crowdfunding major CMON issues profit warning, says losses could exceed $2m for 2024
Crowdfunded board game heavyweight CMON has warned it could face losses of more than $2m for its business activity last year, saying the rising cost of living had eaten into its revenues from tabletop game sales. CMON’s board issued a profit warning to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday, estimating its losses for 2024 at between $1.4m and $2.1m – with the final, audited total expected to be revealed in the company’s annual report by the end of this month.
At the mid-point of that range the 2024 losses would almost completely wipe out CMON’s $1.8m profits across the previous three years combined – bringing to an end several years of improving performance as the company recovered from losses of almost $5m in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stonemaier’s “pretty big gamble” with large Wyrmspan print run pays off, as soaring sales help company’s revenue surge to $23.7m
Wingspan publisher Stonemaier Games‘ revenue soared more than 40% to $23.7m last year, after a gamble on a hefty initial print run for new release Wyrmspan led to the game having the best first year for sales in the company’s 13-year history. Stonemaier sold more than 303,000 copies of Wyrmspan last year – a figure that despite already high hopes went “far beyond my wildest dreams”, company co-founder Jamey Stegmaier told BoardGameWire.
Record GAMA Expo attendance leaves show straining at the seams again, as drive to represent whole board game industry continues trade body’s rapid growth
Another record attendance at North America’s biggest board games industry trade show, GAMA Expo, has left the event pressed for space once again – just a year after the show was transported to Louisville in an attempt to handle surging interest.
More than 3,420 people attended this year’s GAMA Expo at the end of February – up 26% compared to its first event at the Kentucky International Convention Centre last year, and a 67% jump from the roughly 2,040 attendees at the Expo’s last show in its former home in Reno, Nevada in 2023.
The show has now more than doubled in size since 2018 – a huge success for GAMA, and one partly down to the trade organisation’s recent push to expand beyond its decades long remit of representing hobby game publishers, retailers and wholesalers.
Fewer releases, spending freezes and rising prices: board game publishers face volatile financial future as US hikes China tariff to 20%, brings in 25% Canada, Mexico tariffs
Board game publishers already battling the financial fallout of Donald Trump’s trade war are now facing an even more volatile future, after the US President doubled the country’s tariffs on Chinese imports to 20% and flip-flopped on 25% tariffs for goods from Canada and Mexico.
Executives from a string of publishers including Renegade Game Studios, Stonemaier Games, Hachette Boardgames USA and Leder Games spoke to BoardGameWire about the nightmare they face in trying to navigate the ever-changing tariff environment.
New-look Origins Awards has a massive 120 nominees this year; new Hall of Fame inductees revealed
The Origins Awards, one of board gaming’s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has picked out a huge slate of 120 nominees for its 2024 competition – which coincides with the 50th anniversary of its namesake gaming convention. The awards, which are organised by non-profit trade organization GAMA, have been in heavy flux over the past few years, going from 10 categories in 2019 to 24 last year, and significantly shaking up the make-up of those categories from year to year.
GAMA has shrunk the awards back down to 12 categories this year, with no room for new segments introduced in 2024 to better represent GAMA’s growing expansion beyond just retailers, publishers and wholesalers.
Pittsburgh game store Games Unlimited still innovating after 45 years, scoops pair of GAMA Power Retail awards
A Pittsburgh tabletop game store which is still pushing new boundaries more than 45 years after being launched has picked up a pair of The Game Manufacturers Association‘s Power Retail Awards, including retailer of the year. Games Unlimited was created by a trio of friends in 1979 – just a few years after the original release of Dungeons & Dragons – and says it has been ahead of the game over the years in being quick to stock products such as Magic the Gathering, Pictionary and Rubik’s Cubes before they achieved major popularity.
Reconstruct ancient Greek pottery, decode an alien language and watch your money burn in real time: Cardboard Edison nominees revealed as unpublished games award celebrates 10th year
The long-running Cardboard Edison Award is celebrating a decade of highlighting the best currently unpublished board games, as it unveils the finalists for this year’s competition.
The always eclectic mix of designs includes Athenia, a real time game about reconstructing ancient Greek pottery, Invasion, a two-player battle between a ‘human’ player trying to decode an alien language and an ‘alien’ attempting to abduct the human’s cards, and Dot Com, an app-assisted economic strategy game where your money is burned away in real time.
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