Star-studded new board game publisher launches, Essen Spiel and Tokyo Game Market team up
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Z-Man, Stronghold Games founders lead star-studded launch of new board game publisher Play to Z
Z-Man Games founder Zev Shlasinger has teamed with fellow board game industry veterans including Stronghold Games founder Stephen Buonocore to launch a new publishing house called Play to Z. Shlasinger, who left WizKids in June after seven years with the business, will be president and COO of the company, with Buonocore acting as chairman. Buonocore launched Stronghold in 2009, and served as its president for many years before stepping down in 2020.
Play to Z’s board of directors includes Space Cadets designer and TableTop Games Designers Association co-founder Geoff Engelstein, GAMA treasurer Nicole Brady, games media content creator Ruel Gaviola and BGG.con event organiser Jeff Anderson, among others. The company’s debut game will be a new edition of 2011 Z-Man release Ascending Empires, a dexterity-based strategy game which sees players flicking their ships into space to expand their empires and exploit planetary resources.
Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons maker Hasbro is laying off another 1,100 staff amid weak holiday-season demand
Hasbro, the toy and game giant that owns Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons studio Wizards of the Coast, is slashing another 1,100 jobs as ongoing macroeconomic concerns eat into consumer demand. The company emailed staff on Monday to say it was cutting 20% of its workforce, on top of 800 job cuts which have already taken place this year. Those cuts are far deeper than Hasbro initially planned. The company began a cost-savings programme in October last year, and in January 2023 confirmed it planned to cut about 1,000 roles, representing 15% of its workforce.
Hasbro’s most recent quarterly results, released in October, showed net revenues of $1.5bn – down 10% year-on-year and falling short of its expectations. Wizards of the Coast hugely outperformed in the quarter, however, with revenues spiking 40% thanks to the strength of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons – particularly the “blockbuster” August release of video game Baldur’s Gate III, which last week won Game of the Year at the high-profile Game Awards.
Essen Spiel, Tokyo Game Market are looking to team up to promote each other’s events
Essen Spiel, the world’s biggest board game fair, hopes to launch a co-promotion partnership with Japan’s largest tabletop convention Tokyo Game Market to help boost awareness of both events. More than 193,000 visitors attended this year’s Essen Spiel fair at the start of October – up more than 30% compared to its 2022 event. Tokyo Game Market, meanwhile, attracted about 25,000 people last weekend for its Autumn show – one of two major events it holds each year.
Essen Spiel communications director Robin de Cleur told BoardGameWire the pair plan to collaborate at Nuremberg’s Spielwarenmesse – the world’s largest toy fair – in January, and again at Essen Spiel 2024 next October.
Third New York board game cafe in a month wins fight to establish union
Workers at New York City board game cafe The Brooklyn Strategist have scored a landslide election victory to establish a union – the third NYC game store to do so within the last month. Staff at the cafe attempted to unionise on November 1 by presenting a petition to owner Jon Freeman, citing their concerns with unfair compensation, lack of job security, and ineffective grievance procedures as their primary motivations for organizing. Freeman refused to recognise the petition, which was signed by more than 75% of the store’s workers, leading staff to instead file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). That vote was won by a landslide 17 votes to 1 yesterday.
The election success means The Brooklyn Strategist has become the final shop in the family of gaming stores owned by Jon Freeman and Greg May to officially unionise.
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Other news:
Votes for Women follows critical acclaim by triumphing in 2023 Summit Award
Games Workshop pays out £7.5m in bonuses to staff amid jump in profits; share price slumps
Design Zone
The key to a great engine-building game - Joe Slack, The Board Game Design Course
Learning Systems: A Tabletop Network Exploration - Geoff Engelstein, GameTek
Notes for designers cold calling at convention booths for pitching - Joe Wiggins, COO of Allplay
Game Design and Publishing talk at Crafter Con 2023 - game designer Jonathan Leistiko
Jobs of the Week
And finally - Polygon has tapped up dozens of writers, designers, YouTubers, actors, and personalities from the world of board gaming to get them to spill the beans on their favourite games this year.
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