Board game manufacturing major Panda has expanded its production operation outside of China for the first time by launching a joint venture in Brazil, as unpredictability over US tariffs continues to weigh on the tabletop industry.
American toy retailers from trade body ASTRA have named Finspan, The Gang and Trio as the board game winners of its latest annual Play Awards - which it says were created to highlight novel designs which are "thought provoking or groundbreaking" within the industry.
About a month ago, users of the crowdfunding platform, BackerKit, received an email about an opportunity to invest in the company. Most didn’t know what to make of it. Some thought it was a scam and moved on. But as of today, even before the ‘equity crowdfunding’ campaign becomes available to the general public, the company has already raised more than $1m from their customers - both backers as well as creators.
Unconscious Mind, a worker placement game themed around the psychoanalysis work of Sigmund Freund in the early 1900s, has scooped a record seven nominations in this year's Dice Tower Awards.
Another year of surging growth has seen the British hobby gaming convention UK Games Expo overtake US giant Gen Con in trade hall size - putting it second only to Spiel Essen for trade hall floor space, co-organiser Richard Denning has told BoardGameWire.
Board game giant Asmodee's plan to reignite its strategy of buying up smaller board game publishers and distributors remains "completely unchanged" by the tariffs volatility, with company CEO Thomas Koegler saying the uncertain times in fact "present opportunities for strategic acquisitions".
Part 2 of our ongoing series exploring the trials and tribulations of launching a board game-focused YouTube channel in 2025. JC Wollslager is now seven months into his attempt to “flip the script” on How To Play videos with his channel How To Teach, which he believes fills an underexplored niche in the industry. But the chaotic US tariffs situation is affecting more than just publishers and manufacturers - and in this edition JC details the impact on his fledgling channel, his mental health, and what the future holds for the project.
Dot Com, an economic strategy game which uses an app to run players' money supplies down in real time, has been crowned the winner of this year's Cardboard Edison Award for unpublished board game designs.
US board game publisher Renegade Game Studios has expanded its distribution in Europe by teaming up with Saga Alliance and HEO, amid ongoing volatility in its home US market due to President Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports.
The nominees for this year's Spiel des Jahres, widely considered the highest profile award in board gaming, have been unveiled ahead of the grand final on July 13.
Canadian board game, TCG and comics distribution major Universal Distribution has completed its takeover of US peer Alliance Game Distributors, following a tumultuous bankruptcy auction of the latter's former owner Diamond Comics.
The Diana Jones Award committee has unveiled this year's winners of its emerging designer program, who will each receive a $6,500 prize package that includes an all-expenses trip to Gen Con.
Elevated tariffs continue to threaten the board game industry despite a 90-day 'truce' between the US and China - with publishers now facing a spike in shipping prices and a battle for limited container space as businesses race to take advantage of the lower-tariff window.
War of the Ring publisher Ares Games has signed a pair of new US distribution deals, with director of production Roberto Di Meglio saying the company hopes to prove "there is still life for our industry during the trade war".
Umataka, a worker placement game centred around hunter-gatherers making traditional pottery in ancient Japan, has been named game of the year in the latest Golden Box Board Game Awards.
Arcs, the hybrid trick-taking wargame from Root and Oath designer Cole Wehrle, has won a trio of awards in this year's Golden Geek Awards, with fellow space-themed game SETI notching up a pair of wins.
As the board game industry has exploded in the last couple of decades, so too has the desire and demand from designers for ways to streamline and manage the often fragmented reality of prototyping, testing and preparing to publish their new creations. In this sponsored article, the team behind board game design toolkit Boardssey explain how they've leveraged their own experiences designing games - and the pain points they ran up against - to create a one-stop shop for supporting overwhelmed game designers.
North America’s biggest board games industry trade show, GAMA Expo, is moving to Baltimore after surging attendance numbers left the event straining at the seams again - just two years after the show shifted to Kentucky to handle growing interest.
Board game publishing major CMON slumped to a loss of more than $3m in 2024 - almost double its total profits from the previous three years combined - as falling sales for its crowdfunding campaigns led the company to its lowest annual revenue since pandemic-hit 2020.
Chaos continues to engulf the sale of one North America’s biggest tabletop gaming distributors, Alliance Game Distributors, after the winning bidder scrapped its deal and sued bankrupt AGD owner Diamond Comics for the second time in three weeks - this time claiming Diamond concealed from it that AGD had lost its biggest customer, Wizards of the Coast.
High IQ society Mensa has revealed this year's recipients of its Mensa Select seal, following its traditional four-day gaming marathon to determine the winners.
