Board game distribution major Alliance gets $39m buyout bid as owner Diamond Comics files for bankruptcy protection
Plus: Super Meeple to shake up distribution amid retailer “reluctance” to stock expert games
BoardGameWire is proud to have our newsletter sponsored by the following companies. Please click on the logos to support our reporting, it really helps!
Welcome to the first BoardGameWire newsletter of 2025! This edition is a bumper issue, collating all the most important board game news, features and designer discussion across BoardGameWire and the wider internet since we paused for the Christmas break.
Before you get stuck into the news, I wanted to take a moment to say a huge thank you to our long-standing readers, and to all the new subscribers who signed up over the past few weeks. We passed the 1,000 subscriber mark right at the start of 2025, capping off a huge year for BoardGameWire - more than 370,000 readers for the website, and over half a million page views last year - numbers I couldn’t have dreamed of hitting just 18 months after launching the site. But if I’ve learned one thing across 18(!) years of journalism, it’s that readers show up for original reporting, and I’m thankful to all of you - and especially to the small cluster of you who commit a few dollars each month to support our work. If you read the newsletter for free - no problem! But if you’re finding value in the work we’re doing, and can spare a few dollars each month to help keep the lights on, please consider a paid subscription, or signing up to the BoardGameWire Patreon here.
It’s a hefty newsletter this week! And kicks off with one of North America's biggest tabletop gaming distributors, Alliance Game Distributors, receiving a $39m buyout bid after its long-time owner Diamond Comics filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. But this has already been a long intro, so I’ll leave you to discover and chew over the rest of the articles yourselves. And don’t forget to read on beyond the news for our exhaustive collection of all the latest designer focused news, tips and discussions, followed by our run-down of the board game industry’s latest job openings.
One final thing: I’ll be heading to the GAMA Expo trade show for the first time at the end of February, so if you’re heading along too and want to meet up, discuss our coverage, pitch some potential news or just play a game together, please do let me know! I am, as ever, available at mike@boardgamewire.com.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
Board game distribution major Alliance gets $39m buyout bid as owner Diamond Comics files for bankruptcy protection
One of North America's biggest tabletop gaming distributors, Alliance Game Distributors, has received a $39m buyout bid from Canadian peer Universal Distribution after its long-time owner Diamond Comics filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. Alliance has been a heavyweight of US board game distribution since it was created through the merger of Chessex and The Armory in 1998, with both companies already major players in the sector before the deal was signed.
The company has maintained its strong position since being bought by Comics distribution giant Diamond in 2000, despite the ongoing woes of its parent company in recent years. Three board game publishers BoardGameWire spoke with on condition of anonymity expressed surprise that Asmodee had not been named as a bidder for Alliance, given the tabletop gaming giant’s announcement in November that it was preparing to “reignite” its acquisitions strategy.
Maldito Games agrees sale to Devir after business tasks ‘become a burden’ for former owner
Devir Games has agreed to buy Spanish board game publisher Maldito Games, adding its portfolio of ‘expert-level’ localisations including Terraforming Mars, Ark Nova and Brass Birmingham to its catalogue. Devir said it would continue to publish games under the Maldito brand following the acquisition, and would transfer some of its own ‘expert’ games to the arm, having been looking for a way to better categorise its catalogue “for some time”.
The sale process was instigated by Maldito rather than Devir, however, with the former’s general manager Francisco Álamo telling Spanish board game reviewer and Twitch streamer Mishi Geek that the growth of the company had forced him to focus on business tasks such as payroll management and finance over hunting for games to publish.
Super Meeple to shake up distribution amid retailer “reluctance” to stock expert games
French board game publisher Super Meeple plans to step up its own direct sales this year after struggling to get individual retailers to stock more than a handful of copies of each of its heavier games through 2024. Super Meeple said that although it scored early success last year with deduction game Kronologic: Paris 1920 and lighter euro World Wonders, some of its more complex titles such as Bardwood Grove and Kraftwagen “did not conquer”.
The publisher said in a Facebook post detailing its 2024 performance that “often cautious” retail stores “limit their expert game orders due to their high cost and competition of lighter games and TCGs”, adding that the majority of orders for Bardwood Grove, Planta Nubo and Kraftwagen were limited to one or two units per store.
SETI wins expert-level eurogame award Diamant d’Or, Civolution scores second place
Space exploration eurogame SETI has picked up its first award by scooping this year’s Diamant d’Or, a prize launched a decade ago to celebrate complex eurogames being overlooked by more mainstream board game awards. Stefen Feld design Civolution finished in second place in the 2025 contest, with Vital Lacerda’s Inventions: Evolution of Ideas finishing in third spot.
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”.
Finspan reveal briefly crashes Stonemaier Games website as players flock to check out final game in Wingspan trilogy
Stonemaier Games has unveiled the final game in its bestselling Wingspan trilogy, with the fish-themed Finspan set for release in Q1 of this year. Huge interest following the announcement overloaded Stonemaier’s website, despite the company having prepped its web host in advance that it was expecting a surge, Stonemaier co-founder Jamey Stegmaier told BoardGameWire.
Bird-themed tableau builder Wingspan quickly became Stonemaier’s highest-selling title by a considerable margin following its release in 2019, with more than 1.9 million copies sold over the following five years. Scythe, the company’s second best-selling title, had sold a still impressive 550,000 copies at the same point, despite being released three years earlier.
Cardboard Edison revamps award process after admitting judging ‘blind spot’ over last year’s colonialism-themed winner
The long-running Cardboard Edison Award, which aims to highlight the best in currently unpublished board games, is changing the judging process for this year’s competition after a backlash over last year’s colonisation-themed winner. Cardboard Edison co-founders Suzanne and Chris Zinsli said it “became clear there was a blind spot in our judging process” after the response to last year’s winner Crowded Frontier, which is themed around the rush to colonise the American West.
Almost 60 board game industry professionals were part of the judging panel for the award last year – and Cardboard Edison has acknowledged that the group “failed to identify a troubling aspect of the winning game’s theme and flag it for the designer”.
Shut Up & Sit Down continues push into game development through tie-up with publisher Play to Z, says deal will “not compromise on our core values”
Board game review giant Shut Up & Sit Down has made a further move into game development by inking a deal with star-studded publisher Play to Z – a financial tie-up it admits will mean “additional caveats, conversations, and potential complications” for its review work. SU&SD said its team will select and streamline out-of-print designs for the ‘SU&SD Presents’ line, before working as consultants to remove plastic “bloat” and advise on theme and art direction ahead of the games being published by Play to Z.
The partnership plans to release a single title each year, but will launch with two titles in 2025 – including a new game from Pandemic designer Matt Leacock, Animal Rescue Team, which he has created alongside his friend and “real life animal rescuer” Lisa Towell.
Enjoying BoardGameWire?
Great! We love writing about all the board game news that isn’t being properly covered elsewhere. But to do that, we need your support! If you’ve found our writing interesting or useful and want to help us do more, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Other news:
GAMA hunts for tabletop gaming’s best brick-and-mortar stores in latest Power Retail Awards
US longshoremen reach tentative deal with ports and shippers to avert strike - Guardian
Striking Vallejo miniature and hobby paint workers win salary, safety agreements - Polygon
Ex-CMON, Southern Hobby Distribution exec Adam Lovell named Director of Hobby at Asmodee - ICv2
Asmodee Germany focuses on growth through expanded distribution - Spielwarenmesse
Design Zone
Board game designers Sen-Foong Lim and Nick Yu discuss their journey designing a series of games for potential self-publication, along with a plan to document their progress in a short form monthly podcast series
Mathue Ryann from EnvyBorn Games talks game design vs development, accessibility in games, and the intricacies of pitching to publishers in this My Favourite Games podcast episode
Matthew Dunstan, designer of Next Station: London and co-designer of The Guild of Merchant Explorers, drills into his 2024 finances and discusses royalties, the Spiel des Jahres and digital adaptations
This player is not playing: what can I do? Tips for cutting analyis paralysis out of designs from Skeleton Code Machine
Gamely Games founder Hazel Reynolds on pitching to playtesters - Mojo Nation
Designer Diary: Hispania, or How It Became Roman by Miguel Marques - BoardGameGeek
The Cardboard Philosophy Podcast looks at victory points in board games
Designer Diary: Minos: Dawn of Bronze Age by Stan Kordonskiy - BoardGameGeek
Joe Slack from The Board Game Design Course looks at How to Make a Compelling Co-op Game
The Game Design Unboxed Podcast talks with Bernie Lin and Brendan Kendrick about their debut design Omicron Protocol, a skirmish miniatures game
Designer Diary: Gold Nugget by Carles Carreras - BoardGameGeek
Job Watch
US - Director of Business Operations - Commercial, Wizards of the Coast
US - Head of Sales, Maestro Media
US - Part time sales representative (remote), AEG
UK - Board Game Developer, Rebellion
Germany - Key Account Manager, Asmodee
Germany - Chief Operating Officer (COO) and many other roles, Karma Games
Belgium - Project Manager Global R&D, Cartamundi
All these jobs are from the very excellent Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook Group - head there to take a look at all the latest listings
That’s it for this week - please share this email with your friends and colleagues if it’s been useful or interesting! It’s as easy as clicking the button below:
And if you value BoardGameWire sourcing exclusives and covering all the most important industry news, please help support us to keep doing so through our Patreon: