Meet Meeples, the startup using tech to take on Asmodee in board game distribution and fulfillment
Plus: Asmodee remains jewel in Embracer’s crown despite suffering quarterly sales drop
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Welcome to this accidentally Asmodee-themed bonus summer newsletter! I’ve managed to find some time around camping with the kids and general summer holiday madness to re-enter the news mines, and the board game industry’s biggest company has been very busy indeed.
We look at why Asmodee’s latest quarterly results haven’t quite kept up with its performance this time last year, despite strong performance from its Star Wars: Unlimited trading card game. Additionally, the company’s buyout of online gaming portal BoardGameArena has proved a savvy purchase, with the number of accounts rocketing past 10 million after being jumpstarted by Covid lockdowns. And we also speak with Meeples, the startup looking to leverage high-tech solutions to muscle in on Asmodee’s fulfillment and distribution dominance.
Thanks for reading! Please do drop me an email (mike@boardgamewire.com) or leave a comment about what you’d like to see more of in these newsletters - types of news, interviews with particular designers or publishers, investigations into specific topics - I’m all ears and ready to listen.
Have a great rest of the summer!
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
Meet Meeples, the startup using tech to take on Asmodee in board game distribution and fulfillment
Meeples, a full-service supply chain and logistics business focused on the board game market, has rapidly grown from a two-person business being run out of an attic three years ago to a tech-heavy operation about to move into a new 1,400 sq m warehouse. Co-founder and CCO Floris Toorenburg spoke to BoardGameWire about the company’s vision, plans for the future and why he believes publishers are making things unnecessarily difficult for themselves by not choosing a one-stop shop for their logistics.
Asmodee remains jewel in Embracer’s crown despite suffering quarterly sales drop
Board game giant Asmodee continues to outperform for troubled parent company Embracer Group, despite its latest quarterly sales numbers falling compared to the same period last year. Asmodee posted net sales of more than SEK3bn ($288.5m) in Q1 of the 2024/25 financial year, a 5% year-on-year drop, with Embracer blaming the lower performance of distributed games in Central Europe and the UK.
But Embracer Group as a whole saw its quarterly net sales slump 24% year-on-year, with its PC and console games section falling 34% to about SEK2.6bn ($252m). It said Asmodee’s revenue was driven by the continued success of trading card game Star Wars: Unlimited alongside “a strong slate of new board game releases”, with Asmodee deputy COO Thomas Koegler specifically highlighting Harmonies as having had a strong launch when speaking in a Q&A about the results.
Asmodee’s BoardGameArena buyout reaps rewards as service passes 10 million accounts
BoardGameArena, the online board gaming platform bought by Asmodee three years ago, has surged past 10 million registered accounts following several years of rapid growth. BGA, which started life in 2010 as an online tournament website exclusively available in France, took eight years to reach its first million accounts – but has seen user numbers accelerate rapidly since in the wake of Covid lockdowns and the takeover by board game giant Asmodee in 2021.
Asmodee’s influence had already boosted BGA’s profile ahead of the takeover, however, with the addition of the publisher’s games such as 7 Wonders in 2018 lending more legitimacy and heft to the growing platform. But the online service’s operation has swelled even more heavily since joining the Asmodee stable, going from about 250 available games in 2021 to more than 900 this year.
Asmodee, LEGO team up to launch LEGO-focused board game design studio
Board game giant Asmodee has inked a partnership deal with LEGO to launch a dedicated design studio focused on creating new LEGO board games. Denmark-based Dotted Games will “nurture and develop all games within the LEGO Group and Asmodee’s partnership”, a statement from the pair said, starting with family-weight party game Brick Like This!
The move marks a resurrection of LEGO’s push into the board game sector, with the company having created a string of buildable board games in its LEGO Games series between 2009 and 2013.
Gen Con celebrates record 71,000 attendance after event sells out before start of show
North America’s giant tabletop gaming convention Gen Con has broken new ground again after a record 71,000 people flocked to Indianapolis for this year’s event. The long-running convention’s biggest ever crowd also heralded the show being fully sold before the show even began, with no walk-up badges available across the four days of the event.
More than 540 exhibitors ran booths this year, down on the over 570 recorded in 2023. Gen Con did not respond to questions from BoardGameWire about whether this heralded a true shrinkage in exhibitors, or whether it was a factor of some publishers commanding larger booths than last year.
Gen Con 2024: The view from the booths
BoardGameWire spoke to a string of publishers who ran booths at this year’s record-breaking Gen Con event, to get the inside track on highs, lows, opportunities and challenges at the show. Those responses were far more than we were able to use in our headline article, so we’ve collected their views in their totality here.
Toy Fair New York owner adds Chicago Toy and Game Fair to roster with People of Play buyout
Toy Fair New York owner The Toy Association has bought Chicago Toy and Game Fair operator People of Play, bringing two of North America’s largest toy and game industry events under the same umbrella. The deal comes three months before Chicago Toy and Game Fair puts on its 22nd annual event in Rosemont, Illinois.
Toy Fair New York, which has been running since 1903, is a key event in the board game industry calendar, giving designers and publishers the chance to pitch ideas, agree licensing deals and get their games in front of mass-market retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Costco, Target and Walmart.
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Other news:
The Upside Agency’s Jaime Wolanski reveals the surprising truth about getting games into Target - Mojo Nation
The African Boardgames Convention successfully funded this year’s event on Kickstarter. Late pledges are still open!
The Buffalo Bills are the latest American Football team obsessed with beating each other at Catan - Yahoo News
The latest San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHistCon) is coming up in November - tickets are on sale here
Stonemaier Games has announced its final release of 2024, Stamp Swap from Honey Buzz designer Paul Salomon
An interesting blog post from Monolith Games about why the board gaming crowdfunding sector is in crisis
A Kickstarter is coming in October for Tikal Legend, billed as being based on the mechanics of the 25-year-old original but targeting a more expert audience
Design Zone
The Game Crafter is auctioning off a trio of badges for virtual board game playtesting convention Protospiel Online
Board game design YouTube channel Board Game Blueprint on filtering feedback from playtesters
Designer Diary: Resafa by Vladimir Suchy - BoardGameGeek
Stonemaier Games asks the indie game publishers community about their greatest needs - some good responses in the comments
YouTuber Adam In Wales, creator of the Board Game Designer Journal, on how to juggle designing board games while working full time in another job
The Cardboard Philosophy podcast team look at luck in games, and about how it’s sometimes used the way it is by designers
Designer Diary: Flatiron by Shei Santos and Isra Cendrero - BoardGameGeek
Job Watch
UK - Marketing Manager, Naylor Games
US - Project Manager, Grand Prix International
US - Director of Operations & Logistics, Dyce
US - Sales Lead - TableTop Game Industry, Bluencore
US - Marketing Designer, Upper Deck
All these jobs are from the very excellent Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook Group - head there to take a look at all the latest listings
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