Lucky Duck has a big hitter of its own in the Chronicles of Crime series of games, which have sold more than one million copies worldwide.
Emma Recher, who will head up a three-person team at Don't Panic's new US office in California, told BoardGameWire, "Several recent titles have reinforced our confidence in expanding more directly into the US market. "
Universal becomes an authorised US hobby distributor for Stonemaier's games, which include the massive-selling Wingspan series and other popular titles such as Scythe, and will take on sole distribution rights in August of this year.
The dice and card-focused combat game has become a crowdfunding heavyweight following its original $180,000 Kickstarter project from Mind Bottling Games in 2018, going on to raise almost $13m across a string of subsequent campaigns.
Cardboard Alchemy has taken the next step in its rapid expansion by shifting to distribute its own games into retail, powered by the evergreen success of its dragon-themed design Flamecraft.
Kosmos managing director Matthias Kienzle said, "With the new ownership structure and the newly formed management team, we aim to further scale and continuously expand our international sales activities."
Company co-founder Floris Toorenburg told BoardGameWire the company handled 14-times the number of orders in December 2025 that it did 12 months earlier, and estimated the business will ship about 118,000 packages and pallets this year across e-commerce fulfillment, crowdfunding fulfillment and its own sales channels.
The deal comes a month after Codenames and SETI publisher Czech Games Edition signed its first-ever distribution agreement with Hachette - for the UK distribution of its new title Wispwood - after a decade of Asmodee being the sole distribution partner for its titles in the UK.
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.
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.
