CMON announced more IP sales could be on the way alongside making an apology for the delays to its outstanding crowdfunds - some of which are now running almost two years beyond initial delivery estimates.
A trio of comings and goings from the board game industry for the year so far - if you have news of a new role, hire or job change within the industry that you'd like mentioned on BoardGameWire, please send an email with the details to the editor, Mike Didymus-True, on mike@boardgamewire.com
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.
Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler said the company 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".
Members of the Kickstarter United union had been striking since October 2 after months of talks with management over a new collective bargaining agreement stalled.
The company has let go of project director Danielle Reynolds and customer experience manager Derek Gill as part of the "heartbreaking" layoffs, which it said were necessary to ensure its long-term sustainability.
Hong Kong-listed CMON had hoped to sell more than 360 million newly-created shares in a process which would have valued the company at just over $5m, with the money raised going towards developing new games, marketing and events, and general working capital.
Steamforged CEO Rich Loxam told BoardGameWire the company had been surprised by the weight of feeling from potential backers over the $389 price of the all-in 'Town Founder' pledge level, which he acknowledged "placed it out of reach for many".
