Members of the Kickstarter United union had been striking since October 2 after months of talks with management over a new collective bargaining agreement stalled.
The company has let go of project director Danielle Reynolds and customer experience manager Derek Gill as part of the "heartbreaking" layoffs, which it said were necessary to ensure its long-term sustainability.
The co-creator of publisher Hollandspiele and designer of games including Irish Gauge, The Field of the Cloth of Gold and City of Six Moons, triumphed in this year's award with her video essay on author Kurt Vonnegut’s long-lost board game GHQ, its cultural relevance and the wider subject of game preservation.
Hong Kong-listed CMON had hoped to sell more than 360 million newly-created shares in a process which would have valued the company at just over $5m, with the money raised going towards developing new games, marketing and events, and general working capital.
Veteran German board game publisher Amigo Spiele has restructured its top leadership for the second time since the start of last year, after long-serving executive Joachim Ulbrich revealed he will retire at the end of 2025.
Ravensburger's court filing said, "Upper Deck's case was frivolous in conception, objectively unreasonable in prosecution and pursued in a manner that multiplied costs while consuming vast judicial resources."
Steamforged CEO Rich Loxam told BoardGameWire the company had been surprised by the weight of feeling from potential backers over the $389 price of the all-in 'Town Founder' pledge level, which he acknowledged "placed it out of reach for many".
The win for Botanicus - the debut title from designers Samuele Tabellini Ferrari and Vieri Masseini - comes hot on the heels of the title taking home the Connoisseurs Game award at the Dutch language Nederlandse Spellenprijs.
The Seeds of Unity campaign has collected more than €535,000 from close to 2,000 backers since launching on Gamefound a week ago - and reached the €50,000 goal amount set by publisher Equinox less than nine minutes after the crowdfund went live.
The partnership comes two weeks after Asmodee revealed Catan would be coming to Netflix in the form of both "scripted and unscripted projects".
The generally congested Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the show were joined by a noticeably busier Sunday this year after Spiel made the decision to get rid of four-day tickets - reasoning that many people were buying the whole-show pass but skipping out on the final day.
SETI publishers Czech Game Edition and Germany-based HeidelBÄR Games scored a double win on the night, having also seen their Matúš Kotry-designed title Little Alchemists take home the best children's game award.
CMON's sale of Cthulhu: Death May Die is the latest move in its drive to battle the huge losses the business has chalked up in the past couple of years - and comes alongside the company announcing a new share sale worth 20% of its existing share capital in an attempt to raise money for the company.
Tariff hikes have already seen several board game businesses shutter their operations in recent months, while others have laid off staff and been forced to hike the price of their games to cover the unexpected costs.
The record could finally fall this year after Spiel made the decision to expand into a seventh vast hall at the Messe Essen exhibition centre, boosting the show floor to 77,500 sq m - up 13% year-on-year, and almost 30% compared to 2023.
The decision comes despite Amigo Games being one of the few hobby board game publishers that managed to diversify some of its manufacturing away from China - the country which has been hit the heaviest by recent US tariffs to date.
Nee created Cryptozoic in 2010 alongside Cory Jones, Scott Gaeta and John Sepenuk, and became CEO in February 2023 after Sepenuk's sudden death of a heart attack while kite-surfing.
Moodbox Games will be led by former Catan Studio director of brand development Kelli Schmitz and long-time young adult-focused book editor Shaina Olmanson, who joined Asmodee as an operations and communications manager in May of this year.
This year Spiel is bringing its annual series of panel discussions and talks to the main show floor via a new 1,000 sq m stage in Hall 4, featuring everything from professional discussions about crowdfunding and fulfillment to a bagpipe-playing workshop and cosplay craft showcase.
Hisashi Hayashi’s co-operative bomb disposal game Bomb Busters has added to its recent Spiel des Jahres win by triumphing in the family games category of this year’s Nederlandse Spellenprijs, the longest-running award celebrating Dutch language board games.
Trading card company Upper Deck has brought a fresh legal claim against Disney Lorcana publisher Ravensburger accusing it of stealing trade secrets, days after a court rejected all its prior claims against the publisher contending the game's design was stolen from it.
