Few people in the modern board game industry can boast a career as long and storied as Zev Shlasinger. After launching Z-Man Games 25 years ago, he found huge success bringing games such as Agricola to the US market - as well as signing one of the biggest board games of all time in 2008's Pandemic. After leaving his seven-year role as director of board games at Wizkids last June, Shlasinger wasted no time launching a new publishing house, Play to Z Games, and the company launched its first offering onto Kickstarter at the end of February - marking the first time Shlasinger had dipped his toes into crowdfunding. He tells BoardGameWire how he approached the campaign, lessons learned and what he plans to do next.
Toy and game giant Hasbro is developing a board game with Ellie Dix, one of three winners of the company's inaugural Women Innovators of Play challenge.
Asmodee has sold Miniature Market, the US tabletop retailer it bought three years ago, to a pair of the board game publishing giant's long-serving managers.
Czech Games Edition, the publisher of titles including Codenames and Lost Ruins of Arnak, has expanded into board game manufacturing by buying the factory it has used almost since its inception 17 years ago.
A new academic survey aimed at digging into the motivations of hobby board gamers has been launched by strategy and wargaming blog and podcast The Armchair Dragoons.
Wingspan and Scythe publisher Stonemaier Games saw its profits rise last year despite a continued fall in revenue, which is down almost a third from the record $24.7m the company reached in 2021.
HABA, the 85-year-old Germany toymaker famous for its family-weight board games, has exited insolvency proceedings in the wake of a plans to shed over 650 jobs - about 40% of its workforce.
UK Games Expo director Richard Denning has been organising the show since its foundation in 2007, when 900 gamers converged on a Birmingham conference centre. After a record 32,000 attendance last year, the event is now considering its future expansion - with Denning citing Gen Con's vast swathe of live entertainment as a key inspiration.
