Steve Jackson Games CEO Meredith Placko resigns after two years in role
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
A trio of resignations dominate this edition, led by the breaking news that Steve Jackson Games CEO Meredith Placko will be leaving the company tomorrow, two years after taking over the role. Big successes during Placko’s time as CEO included the company raising more than $1.3m from over 9,000 backers for the Munchkin Big Box, but revenue at the business was down in 2023 and flat again in 2024, even before the impact of tariffs. Placko said the decision “was not made lightly and came after months of deep reflection”.
Board game crowdfunding giant CMON’s long-serving senior manager David Preti is also out, having resigned as a non-executive director of the company with immediate effect earlier this week, citing “other work commitments”. The news follows a difficult start to 2025 for CMON, which warned last month it could face losses of more than $2m for 2024. The company also had to scrap a $12m IP sale, missed out on $1.39m of investment from a pair of shareholders, failed to submit its annual financial report in time to the Hong Kong stock exchange and has had its shares suspended from trading.
CMON was also namechecked in the demise of Merchants Cove publisher Final Frontier Games, which announced this week it was shutting down despite failing to complete three Kickstarters which raised almost $1.4m. The company claimed CMON failing to pay for an agreed Chinese localisation of one title was the “final nail” in its coffin.
The final resignation covered this week is GAMA’s former marketing and communications manager Amy Lowe, who has accused the trade organisation of “rampant gatekeeping”, “toxic leadership” and disrespecting its members. GAMA executive director John Stacy told BoardGameWire he was taking the criticisms seriously and was meeting with team members to discuss the matter. Lowe’s resignation means GAMA will be looking for its fifth marketing and communications head in as many years.
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Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
Steve Jackson Games CEO Meredith Placko resigns after two years in role
Meredith Placko, the CEO of veteran tabletop game publisher Steve Jackson Games, has resigned from the company two years after taking over the role. Placko, whose resignation becomes effective tomorrow, said, “This decision was not made lightly and came after months of deep reflection.
Big successes during Placko’s term as CEO included the company raising more than $1.3m from over 9,000 backers for the Munchkin Big Box, its first campaign on BackerKit after several years and dozens of projects run on Kickstarter.
Final Frontier Games shuts down with three unfulfilled crowdfunding projects worth almost $1.4m, says CMON failing to pay for localisation was “final nail”
Merchants Cove and Coloma publisher Final Frontier Games is shutting down with three crowdfunding projects worth nearly $1.4m still unfulfilled – and claims that CMON failing to pay for an agreed Chinese localisation of one title was the “final nail” in its coffin.
The Macedonia-based company, which has been publishing games since 2016, revealed it had been in dire financial straits for five years after taking on huge unexpected costs around delivering its first Merchants Cove campaign at the height of the pandemic, with spiking shipping leading to a unplanned bill of more than $350,000.
CMON’s David Preti steps down as non-executive director, seven months after resigning as Chief Operating Officer
Board game crowdfunding giant CMON’s long-serving senior manager David Preti has resigned as a non-executive director of the company with immediate effect, citing “other work commitments”.
Preti’s decision comes seven months after he announced he was resigning as Chief Operating Officer at the Zombicide and Marvel United publisher, which has endured a rocky start to 2025 thanks to a warning it could face losses of more than $2m for 2024, a scrapped deal to sell $12m of IP, and two new shareholders due to invest about $1.39m into the business failing to hand over the money for their stakes.
“Toxic leadership. Rampant gatekeeping”: GAMA marketing and comms head blasts organisation in resignation announcement
Board game trade organisation GAMA has been accused of “rampant gatekeeping”, “toxic leadership” and disrespecting its members in a resignation announcement from its marketing and communications manager. Amy Lowe, who was hired in the role by GAMA last October, said in a now-deleted post on LinkedIn that the non-profit was “deeply siloed and in many ways, broken” while announcing her resignation on April 1.
“Every decision we make is to do something a little out of the ordinary”: CMYK’s Alex Hague on the backlash to Quacks’ redesigned art, and trying to ‘break board gaming’s monoculture’
Few board game artistic redesigns of recent years have drawn as much polarising opinion as publisher CMYK’s recently announced reworking of Quacks of Quedlinburg, with online forums torn over the switch to the 3D clay-style imagery of Ryogo Toyoda. CMYK chief executive Alex Hague – the creative director for the redesign – spoke to BoardGameWire about the motivations behind changing up the look of Schmidt Spiele‘s million-selling game, and CMYK’s vision for breaking board games out of their ‘visual and demographic monoculture’.
Board game industry reels as Trump tariffs threaten job losses, company extinctions
Board game companies across the industry are bracing for price hikes, job losses and the potential shuttering of their businesses after US President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping import tariffs targeting countries across the world earlier this month.
Publishers, designers, manufacturers, retailers and distributors alike have been left reeling by the scale of the tariffs, with imports from China – where the vast majority of board games are made. This roundup exlores the effect of the tariffs across the industry - even before they were hiked again to 145% a few days ago.
“I wanted to elevate board gaming to the same level as cinema, literature, theatre”: Senet editor Dan Jolin celebrates five years of publishing board gaming’s most beautiful magazine
Modern board gaming's boom over the past 20 years has been accompanied by an avalanche of creatives reviewing, discussing and celebrating the growing hobby. That media continues to be dominated by video reviews and previews - but five years ago long-time film magazine editor Dan Jolin and art director James Hunter took a chance that there was room in the industry for a beautiful, high-quality magazine "celebrating the craft, creativity and community" of tabletop gaming.
That hunch has proven well judged, with the magazine's readership having grown five-fold compared to its original Kickstarter campaign thanks to its beautiful presentation, thoughtful reviews and articles, and interviews with the biggest names in board gaming. Editor Dan Jolin spoke to BoardGameWire about the magazine's journey so far, how the industry has changed and what the future holds for Senet.
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Other news:
America’s answer to the Spiel des Jahres, the American Tabletop Awards, unveils 2025 winners
Quacks publisher CMYK is launching a TV game show based on another Wolfgang Warsch game this year
US tariffs put pressure on German board game industry - Kulturgutspiel
Small tabletop creators already feeling squeezed by the Tariff Era - Rascal News
Design Zone
Pandemic designer Matt Leacock talks to the Ludology podcast about the game’s creation and frequent iteration, which now extends to fighting off Sauron’s orcs in Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Game designer Pam Walls reveals four spreadsheets she believes every game designer needs, from publisher lists to pitch tracking
Should board game designers dumb down their games? Game maker Adam Porter discusses the concept in this video.
Board Game Blueprint from The Game Crafter talks about pacing your rulebook so that players aren’t overwhelmed when learning your game.
Connie Vogelmann, Drew Wehrle, Tam Myiang and Jonathan Gilmour-Long hold a long discussion about pitching big, sprawling games on the Meeple Syrup Show
Designer Diary: Super Boss Monster by Hayden Dillard - BoardGameGeek
Joe Wiggins from Allplay and Nick Murray from Bitewing Games discuss the value of components and production in board games
Meeple Syrup again, this time speaking with Christopher Chen about how to use video to your best advantage when pitching
Designer Diary: Galactic Cruise by Koltin Thompson - BoardGameGeek
Advice on how to pitch your game at Unpub from Skeleton Code Machine
Kickstarter Lessons: Everything takes longer than you’d expect (so make sure to do this) - Joe Slack at The Board Game Design Course
Tam Myiang again, this time being interviewed by Game Design Unboxed about his new game Floristry, the rise of 2-player games, and much more
Peter C Hayward and AJ Brandon explore what makes an effective sell sheet, and provide feedback on listener-submitted examples
The Tabletop Takeaway podcast discuss the necessity of player interaction - or not - in board game design.
Job Watch
US - Game Producer, Marketing Creative - Wizards of the Coast
US/Canada - Junior New Business Manager - Gamefound
US - Content Creator + Social Commerce Manager - Big Potato Games
Germany - Marketing and Sales specialist - Goliath
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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