Pegasus Spiele’s co-founder on how it keeps winning board gaming’s biggest prize
BoardGameWire - The world’s leading source of industry news and analysis for board game professionals.
Welcome to a slightly slimmer than usual edition of the BoardGameWire substack, as the team recovers from a week off taking care of children over the half-term school holidays. There’s still plenty to get stuck into, however, including an in-depth and wide-ranging interview with Pegasus Spiele co-founder Karsten Esser on how the company keeps winning the Spiel des Jahres, arguably the biggest prize in board gaming - and why it might be a curse as well as a blessing. Meanwhile, the designers of WW2 skirmish board game Heroes of Normandie have slammed publisher Pig From Hell Games’ owners after being told over email that the business was being liquidated, and we look at the latest problems being faced by Mythic Games - one of the most successful crowdfunding-focused board game publishers of all time - which is currently fighting for its survival after rising prices left it struggling under the weight of its expensive to produce, miniatures-heavy projects.
“It’s clear there are too many games being published”: Pegasus Spiele’s co-founder talks Dorfromantik, economic uncertainty and how it keeps winning board gaming’s biggest prize
It goes without saying that it’s not easy to win the Spiel des Jahres, widely accepted to be the biggest prize in board games. The German game of the year award, which has been handed out annually since 1979, sees a jury of board game critics trawl hundreds of entries to find what they believe is the most rewarding family-friendly game on the market.
With that kind of competition, most publishers would consider themselves lucky to win once in a decade. So how has Pegasus Spiele, the Friedberg-based publisher launched by two friends in 1993, managed to seal the prize five times in the past ten years? BoardGameWire spoke to company co-founder Karsten Esser to find out.
‘Everything was done behind our backs’: Heroes of Normandie designers speak out over shock Pig From Hell Games liquidation
The designers of WW2 skirmish board game Heroes of Normandie have slammed publisher Pig From Hell Games’ owners after being told over email that the business was being liquidated. Pig From Hell’s predecessor company, Devil Pig Games, hit severe financial issues in 2018 after taking on more Kickstarter projects than it was able to deliver, and was bought out by The Board Game Strategist, run and owned by Matagot CEO Arnaud Charpentier.
The business seemed to recover, delivering successful Kickstarters for Heroes of Normandie: Big Red One Edition and Heroes of Normandie: Battle for Caen, and raising almost €150,000 in April this year to create and produce Heroes of the Pacific. But designers Clément Seurat and Yann Uhart and graphic artist Jules Kanou have spoken out about the deep-running issues at the company in the wake of the liquidation announcement.
How Darkest Dungeon board game maker Mythic Games is fighting to survive as spiralling costs weigh on business
More Kickstarter woe: Mythic Games, one of the most successful crowdfunding-focused board game publishers of all time, is fighting for its survival after rising prices left it struggling under the weight of its expensive to produce, miniatures-heavy projects. The company, which launched in 2015, quickly made a name for itself as one of the tabletop industry’s highest-grossing Kickstarter specialists, scoring millions of dollars across campaigns including HEL: The Last Saga, Time of Legends: Joan of Arc and Solomon Kane.
But its greatest crowdfunding success – a tabletop adaptation of the Darkest Dungeon video game which raised more than $5.6m from over 28,000 supporters – also looks set to go down as the company’s biggest failure, after rising prices and high inflation left a multimillion-dollar hole in its finances.
Another New York board game cafe refuses to recognise workers’ union
New York board game cafe the Brooklyn Strategist has refused to recognise a workers’ union despite more than 75% of staff signing a petition to unionise. The move comes just a few weeks after fellow New York City board game cafe chain Hex & Company was accused by workers of union busting amid efforts by staff to officially organise in pursuit of a “living wage”.
A statement from Workers United NY/NJ said when Brooklyn Strategist owner Jon Freeman was confronted with the petition he “immediately refused to recognize the union despite clear majority support”. The union will now file for an election, it added. Freeman is also the co-owner of Hex & Company alongside Greg May, the creator of Manhattan’s first board game cafe, Uncommons.
Other news:
Wizards of the Coast Continues to Boost Hasbro's Bottom Line - Gizmodo
Disney Lorcana details next steps as booster boxes soar 260% over original price - Polygon
Asmodee inks distribution deal with Friendly Skeleton - ICv2
And finally - the giant Games Workshop website redesign has -not- gone down well with fans - one hugely upvoted comment on this reddit thread calls it “the worst website downgrade I've ever seen”.
Please share this email with your friends and colleagues if it’s been useful or interesting, by clicking the button below:
And if you’d like to help support BoardGameWire to keep sourcing exclusives and covering all the most important industry news, you can do so here: