CMON announces cancellation of Degenesis: Clan Wars Gamefound campaign after breakdown in relationship, legal dispute with IP holder
Financially-troubled board game publishing major CMON has suffered another blow after revealing its Gamefound campaign for Degenesis: Clan Wars has been cancelled by the IP holder amid a legal wrangle between the pair.
CMON announced to the campaign’s 1,200 backers that German design studio SixMoreVodka had terminated its contract with the publisher, after what it says began as a collaborative and respectful relationship “quickly became one in which legal channels were the only remaining form of contact”.
CMON claims that after months of work, during which it paid factories to complete moulds for the game’s miniatures, it received a surprise demand from SMV for a sum exceeding the $339,000 raised during the campaign, which included expenditures it said were not in the agreement – despite saying it had already paid SMV several advances.
A statement SMV founder Marko Djurdjevic provided to BoardGameWire said the company disagreed with CMON’s account “in the strongest possible terms”, adding that it was not informed about the publisher’s announcement in advance and “certainly did not expect this attempt to shift the blame for the project’s failure onto our plate”.
SMV said, “As a tiny company, we sought out CMON as a capable publishing partner to help us deliver the game we care so much about.
“However, after we delivered all required materials over a year ago, communication largely ceased. Transparency is a core tenet in communication with our fans, but with the game in CMON’s hands and no details available to us, we were unable to uphold our standards, leaving us increasingly uncomfortable and eventually bringing us here.
“In the meantime, we can confirm only that the contract has indeed been terminated by us, a step which was not taken lightly, after extensive attempts to resolve matters in a more amicable manner.”
CMON has not yet responded to BoardGameWire’s request for comment about SMV’s claims. The company said in its announcement, “We have held up our end of the contract, paid SMV advances as agreed, and have continued to dedicate our own resources to bring this project to its current point.”
CMON added that backers would receive a 100% refund for the campaign, although added that process would not begin until after “final legal resolution”.
Djurdjevic told BoardGameWire, “This obviously has had quite a crippling effect on the development of the Degenesis IP, as we’re now going on two and a half years without a solid release and no return on investment in sight, along with the inability to provide our fans and backers with clarity on the subject.
“We’re trying to keep our heads high, and continue working on our latest project ORKEN, but we’ll need to stay calm and see how this situation develops now that CMON has chosen to go this route.
“As to our ownership of Degenesis: Clan Wars, due to the termination of the contract the IP is back in our hands, but we’ll need to evaluate our options going forward – whether that’s finding a way to make some of the game’s assets available online as STLs etc, or finding a new publisher, we can’t say for now.”
The cancellation comes just a couple of months after Merchants Cove and Coloma publisher Final Frontier Games revealed it was shutting down with three crowdfunding projects worth nearly $1.4m still unfulfilled, claiming that CMON failing to pay for an agreed Chinese localisation of one title was the “final nail” in its coffin.
The Macedonia-based company 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 did not respond to a request from BoardGameWire for clarification about the Final Frontier situation, but reportedly told some backers of the game over email that it never received final copies of the game from Final Frontier, and was only contracted to pay after completion and before pickup.
The Degenesis cancellation continues a traumatic year for CMON, which revealed in April that it had slumped to a $3m loss last year – almost double its total profits from the previous three years combined.
CMON has since halted new game development and campaign launches amid unpredictability around the US tariffs situation, and last month sold a string of games including its most famous and profitable title, Zombicide, as well as Eric Lang designs Blood Rage and Rising Sun.
Following the Degenesis cancellation CMON has eight undelivered crowdfunding campaigns, which raised about $18m, in various stages of production, as well as another seven pre-ordered games.
Two crowdfunded titles and six preorders are currently due for delivery by CMON before the end of this year, including DCeased: A Zombicide Game, which raised more than $2.5m in a Kickstarter campaign.
Four other crowdfunding projects the company had expected to fulfil this year, including the $4.4m DC Super Heroes United, have now been shifted to Q1 2026.
So far this year the company has completed a $2.85m crowdfund for Massive Darkness: Dungeons of Shadowreach on Gamefound, picking up support from more than 9,800 backers.
