The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls and Clash of Clans: The Epic Raid publisher has launched Overture by Maestro Media, through which it plans to co-publish games from other companies, partner with them during development or production, or potentially acquire titles outright.
CMON has warned that its core business is suffering a "prolonged structural downturn" and is still consuming more cash than it generates, despite a drastic restructuring which has seen the board game crowdfunding major halve its workforce, sell off some of its biggest game IPs and halt new crowdfunding campaigns.
After building its reputation through a five-year, 16-game partnership with Reiner Knizia, Bitewing Games is looking to videogames for its next big opportunities. Co-founder Nick Murray tells BoardGameWire about the $700,000-plus success of Balatro-inspired Rolling Deep, adapting Baba Is You and Party House, and why leaving dentistry for Bitewing full-time has raised the stakes around finding lasting commercial hits.
Solis, which was founded in 2020, has published games including Pocket Paragons, Space Lion, Treat, Please! and The Massive-Verse Fighting Card Game, while also carrying out development and production work for other tabletop companies.
The Italy-based War of the Ring publisher said thousands of fake requests repeatedly saturated its server bandwidth and CPU earlier this week, temporarily preventing some customers from reaching its main website and e-commerce site, which is also used for preorders and crowdfunding pledge management.
Plaid Hat Games launched its Kickstarter for The Monolith in June with a trio of successful crowdfunding campaigns under its belt - only to pull the project three days after launch when pledges unexpectedly ground to a halt. In this first-person piece for BoardGameWire, Plaid Hat founder and CEO Colby Dauch explains why The Monolith exposed flaws that Plaid Hat’s previous campaigns had masked, what the publisher believes it got wrong, and why the changes made for its rapid relaunch appear to be working.
Leading the new studio continues a rapid rise for Leiman, a 2025 Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program winner whose published designs include High Tide, Wildberries and Dino Racer - the latter of which picked up significant buzz at Gen Con this year, and is currently ranked at number two in the BoardGameGeek Hotness.
The November 27 and 28 event in Abuja will include prototype playtesting, workshops, industry discussions, networking and a marketplace alongside its consumer-facing game demonstrations and tournaments, according to organiser NIBCARD Games.
Galactic Cruise also picked up gongs for best strategy game and best game from a new designer, while Luthier from Paverson Games won best theme, best production and best game from a small publisher.
Hues and Cues designer Scott Brady, Sagrada co-creator Daryl Andrews and Friendly Skeleton CEO Jacob Way said Best in Play will offer everything from interim executive leadership and designer representation to publisher submission management and crowdfunding strategy.
