Asmodee continues social game expansion push, buys rights to Time’s Up! from R&R Games

Asmodee has agreed to buy the rights to party game Time’s Up! from R&R Games, continuing an expansion push predicated on social games being the fastest growing category of the board games market.

Time’s Up!, first published by R&R in 1999, is based on classic party game Celebrities, in which players write down names on pieces of paper, which teams then take turns guessing based on a single player’s descriptions.

The game increases in difficulty over two subsequent rounds, with players having to describe the same names using just a single word alongside actions and gestures, while in round three the describer cannot speak at all.

Celebrities has been reworked into multiple different boxed releases from various companies over the years, with Peter Sarrett’s design Time’s Up! and Monikers from CMYK among the best known versions.

Asmodee has been a publisher of Time’s Up! since its 2020 acquisition of Repos Production, which had been putting out various versions of the game in Europe since 2004 through a licensing agreement with R&R.

Last year the board game giant shifted Time’s Up! to its Zygomatic studio alongside fellow small-box social games such as its bestselling Dobble range, Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow, the Timeline series and Jungle Speed.

Asmodee said the rights purchase cemented Time’s Up!’s presence as once of Zygomatic’s flagship titles, adding that the Zygomatic team would focus on focus on “expanding the IP and further strengthening its global reach particularly in English-speaking territories, where there is a significant growth potential for the brand”.

It added that it would undertake a “rationalisation and modernisation” of the Time’s Up! range in 2027, which will see it “streamline the product line, refresh the brand positioning, and ensure stronger competitiveness and accessibility across markets”.

Asmodee said Time’s Up! Express, which was launched in January, marked the first step in its refreshed strategy for the game – with its faster gameplay and broader accessibility reaching new audiences “while remaining faithful to the core experience that made the game successful”.

The company’s acquisition of Time’s Up! comes just over a month after it agreed to pay up to €250m for French social and party game publisher ATM Gaming, the publisher of titles including Speed Bac/Quickstop, Mouton Mouton and Pili Pili.

Asmodee said at the time that it expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for social games of between 4% and 8% between 2025 and 2030, compared to about 4% for the wider board games market, citing mass market sales research for the US and ‘main European countries’ conducted by Arthur D Little.

Company CEO Thomas Koegler said in the company’s Q2 report last November that Asmodee had seen “good momentum” in its lower price-point products in the US mass market, singling out Exploding Kittens as a particularly strong performer in what he called a “challenging market”.

Last October the company launched a new party games studio, Moodbox Games, as part of a push into the US mass market.

Asmodee announced in November 2024 that it was preparing to “reignite” its strategy of buying up smaller board game publishers and distributors, saying at the time that it had a pipeline of more than 20 acquisition opportunities.

The ATM deal followed five other acquisitions from the past 12 months – including the buyout of Japon Brand from CMON, anchoring the board game giant’s push into a “currently untapped market” for the company.

Its other recent deals include picking up Zombicide, Cthulhu: Death May Die and Sheriff of Nottingham from CMON, which is attempting to recover from heavy losses over the past couple of years.

Speaking about the Time’s Up! deal to Board Game Beat, R&R Games president Frank DiLorenzo reportedly said multiple companies had reached out over the years to inquire about buying the title or the entire business, but added that “most offers either didn’t align with our valuation or came from partners we felt would not fully honor and support what we’ve built”.

He said of the Asmodee buyout, “We’ve had a longstanding relationship with Asmodee, particularly following their acquisition of our European partner, Repos.

“They have a deep understanding of the game and a clear vision for maintaining its longevity and appeal. Their offer was both attractive and well balanced. We believe this agreement creates meaningful benefits for both companies and for the players who love the game.”

He added that R&R would transition out of publishing the game over the next few months, winding down its remaining stock through direct sales on its website.