German language Too Many Bones, Endeavor: Deep Sea publisher Frosted Games boosts distribution through Asmodee tie-up
Frosted Games, the German-language publisher of titles including Too Many Bones and Endeavor: Deep Sea, has signed a deal with industry heavyweight Asmodee to expand its distribution across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The deal comes just over a year after Frosted revealed it had ended its years-long distribution deal with Germany’s Pegasus Spiele, saying at the time that as a niche publisher of small print runs, “the wholesale route was no longer financially viable without either drastically increasing the prices of our games or making massive cuts somewhere in the production chain”.
Since then Frosted has been selling direct to retailers and consumers through its web shop and at trade fairs, but CEO Benjamin Schönheiter said in a video announcement of the Asmodee deal that its distribution range was not “very broad”.
The deal with Asmodee gives the German publisher a “pre-release” period of around three months during which games will only be available directly from Frosted, before the titles are opened out to Asmodee for wider distribution.
Schönheiter said that during that “grace period” Frosted will work on advertising and marketing, so that by the time Asmodee steps in to distribute it more widely there is a higher demand for the games.
He said Frosted had already received “very positive feedback” from retailers about the new programme.
Udo Fischer, CEO of Asmodee Germany, said, “Our job is simply to bring the game through other channels or to regions where they aren’t currently available.”
He added that in the future, the distribution programme would extend to “every German book store”, enabling gamers to order games from even small, local book sellers “just as it is possible with books with the overnight service”, so that players do not have to wait days or weeks for delivery.
Schönheiter added, “Our games will simply be much more available, and not just in Germany, but also in Austria and Switzerland.
“That’s a big advantage too – we’ve been struggling with that for a long time, and we have a lot… well, that always blows me away, a lot of fans from Switzerland, and I can now supply them directly again.”
Frosted’s 2025 releases include Dead Cells, The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era, wave two of Earthborne Rangers and Astro Knights.
Other recent distribution deals signed by Asmodee Germany include agreeing with HeidelBÄR Games to expand the distribution partnership for Vlaada Chvátil’s Codenames family of games across Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
