“Our business has exploded in a positive way”: board game distribution, fulfillment specialist Meeples Group moves from start-up to scale-up with huge warehouse expansion

Company co-founder Floris Toorenburg told BoardGameWire the company handled 14-times the number of orders in December 2025 that it did 12 months earlier, and estimated the business will ship about 118,000 packages and pallets this year across e-commerce fulfillment, crowdfunding fulfillment and its own sales channels.

“No part of the mission says ‘Asmodee makes all the games'”: Luke Peterschmidt on shaping the future of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings tabletop titles

When news broke three months ago that board game giant Asmodee had been named manager of the hugely lucrative Middle-earth licence for tabletop games and accessories, questions naturally abounded within the industry about what that would mean for other publishers hoping to create The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings-based titles. Luke Peterschmidt, the tabletop veteran tasked with running the Middle-earth operation at Asmodee, sat down with BoardGameWire at Spiel Essen following the announcement to outline his vision for the IP, what they want from publishers in terms of pitches, and how they hope to prove naysayers of the deal wrong.

People moves: Ross Thompson leaves Asmodee’s Atomic Mass Games; Druid City Games brings in ex-Incredible Dream marketing director Ilya Ushakov; Ross Connell joins Mantic from North Star Games

A trio of comings and goings from the board game industry for the year so far - if you have news of a new role, hire or job change within the industry that you'd like mentioned on BoardGameWire, please send an email with the details to the editor, Mike Didymus-True, on mike@boardgamewire.com

Board game publishers Stonemaier, CMYK and Eurydice Games on how they’re utilising – and paying to include – fan designs in their releases

Homebrew designs and fan-made rules and variants have been part of hobby board gaming for as long as the pastime has existed - and some publishers have leaned into utilising design work from fans in their published games. BoardGameWire spoke to Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games, Alex Hague from CMYK Games, and Jackson Pope from Eurydice Games about how they've approached bringing in fan-made ideas for their titles.

“There’s more to historical board games than just hex-and-counter WWII”: Candice Harris on turning her video talents to making historical wargaming more accessible after her surprise BoardGameGeek exit

Candice Harris has been an ever-present, vivacious stalwart of the BoardGameGeek front page for more than five years, bringing her infectious enthusiasm and joy for gaming to visitors through her news posts, appearances on live play video series Game Night! and three years helming the BoardGameGeek podcast. But she's now turning her video and presenting talents to the publisher side by showcasing and marketing designs from GMT Games, best known for its complex historical, wargame and strategy titles. Harris spoke to BoardGameWire about her plans for expanding GMT's audience, the challenge of making complex game more accessible, and breaking assumptions around historical gaming and its designs.