Company CEO Kevin Rountree said the £6bn business was strongly committed to protecting its IP and respecting its human creators.
Company co-founder and CEO Jamey Stegmaier told BoardGameWire the prevalence of smaller box releases, expansions and re-releases in its 2026 plan was not a response to US tariff concerns or other economic factors.
The French award focuses on new, expert-level eurogame releases from the previous 12 months which have a high replayability, especially those “whose format does not always allow them to apply for one of the many other current awards”.
The War of the Ring publisher has added Europe to its distribution partnerships with Poland's Galakta Games, Italy's Tabula Games, Czech Republic-based Albi, and France's Nuts! Publishing and Don't Panic Games, for which it already has distribution deals in North America.
Homebrew designs and fan-made rules and variants have been part of hobby board gaming for as long as the pastime has existed - and some publishers have leaned into utilising design work from fans in their published games. BoardGameWire spoke to Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games, Alex Hague from CMYK Games, and Jackson Pope from Eurydice Games about how they've approached bringing in fan-made ideas for their titles.
The surprise cancellation comes four months after the Root and Arcs publisher unveiled the crowdfunding campaign for Take, a risk management and negotiation game which sees players executing a series of heists.
The dramatic demise of the decade-old publisher comes after it raised more than $19m from board game crowdfunding campaigns in just five years - including in excess of $5.6m from over 28,000 backers for its most successful Kickstarter, Darkest Dungeon: The Board Game, in 2020.
Candice Harris has been an ever-present, vivacious stalwart of the BoardGameGeek front page for more than five years, bringing her infectious enthusiasm and joy for gaming to visitors through her news posts, appearances on live play video series Game Night! and three years helming the BoardGameGeek podcast. But she's now turning her video and presenting talents to the publisher side by showcasing and marketing designs from GMT Games, best known for its complex historical, wargame and strategy titles. Harris spoke to BoardGameWire about her plans for expanding GMT's audience, the challenge of making complex game more accessible, and breaking assumptions around historical gaming and its designs.
Codenames and SETI publisher Czech Games Edition has signed its first-ever distribution agreement with Hachette, as the French publishing giant continues to expand out its European board game distribution operation in the face of competition from industry heavyweight Asmodee.
SETI's indomitable 2025 awards run also includes the Deutscher Spiele Preis - the biggest community-voted board game award in Germany - Dice Tower Awards for game of the year, best strategy game and best new designer, and the Golden Geek heavy game of the year and thematic game awards.
