CMON, the crowdfunded board game specialist which left Kickstarter for rival Gamefound earlier this year, saw its profits soar to over $23m in 2023 amid a hefty drop in its sales-associated costs.
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.
Ninja Division, the troubled miniatures game publisher which raised more than $3m via Kickstarter for a string of tabletop projects, has filed for bankruptcy.
Wyrmspan, the dragon-themed successor to Stonemaier Games' bestselling board game Wingspan, topped the charts for most new owners on BoardGameGeek last month after a huge launch campaign.
Awaken Realms has taken down AI-generated promotional images for its newly-announced Puerto Rico 1897 Special Edition crowdfunding campaign after being contacted by the game's licensor Ravensburger.
A newly-announced deluxe edition of classic economic strategy game Puerto Rico has come under fire after promotional images for the campaign appeared to show tell-tale signs of using AI to create the artwork.
Open Owl Studios, the publisher of Kickstarter successes Mythwind and Stars of Akarios, has agreed an exclusive US distribution deal for its games with GTS Distribution.
IP-focused board game publisher Gale Force Nine has followed its phenomenally successful debut crowdfunding campaign last year by announcing a trio of new games set to come to Gamefound.
Earthborne Games, a sustainable manufacturing-focused board game maker run by former Fantasy Flight Games designers and artists, has scored its second crowdfunding success by raising almost $1m for the new printing of co-operative card game Earthborne Rangers.
Mindclash Games has made a name for itself as a Kickstarter-focused heavy board games expert since the launch of debut title Trickerion on the crowdfunding service in 2015. BoardGameWire spoke to CEO Viktor Peter about the company's changing approach, its recent use of Gamefound rather than Kickstarter, and how some avenues for marketing its games are not proving as lucrative as in the past.
