{"id":3696,"date":"2025-02-05T14:04:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T14:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=3696"},"modified":"2025-02-05T14:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T14:15:08","slug":"ares-games-teams-with-armenian-board-game-publisher-red-cat-successor-to-russias-lifestyle-boardgames-for-english-versions-of-two-games-hopes-for-more-in-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/05\/ares-games-teams-with-armenian-board-game-publisher-red-cat-successor-to-russias-lifestyle-boardgames-for-english-versions-of-two-games-hopes-for-more-in-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Ares Games teams with Armenian board game publisher Red Cat – successor to Russia’s Lifestyle Boardgames – for English versions of two games, hopes for more in future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

War of the Ring publisher Ares Games<\/a> is bringing two games from Armenian publisher Red Cat Games<\/a> – the successor studio to Russia’s Lifestyle Boardgames<\/a> – to the English language market amid a busy year for the Italy-based business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ares will publish two-player 3D apartment block builder Balconia<\/a> and casual word association game Perfect Mismatch<\/a> this year, after being impressed by the titles at the Nuremberg Toy Fair last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberto Di Meglio, director of R&D at\u00a0Ares\u00a0Games, told BoardGameWire they “immediately fell in love” with Balconia, which sees players taking turns to choose and place building blocks, working to strategically align scoring elements on their side of the building while restricting their opponent’s options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that although the current partnership was being handled on a game-by-game basis, “we love the style of Red Cat’s games, so we really hope to have more of them in our catalog in the future”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ares’ previous Western Asian partnerships have included 2022 release Orconomics, designed and developed by Russia-based Economicus Games<\/a> and Igrology<\/a>, and 2021 release Masters of the Night, another Igrology game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Perfect Mismatch — Photo Credit: Ares Games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Red Cat itself has strong Russian roots, as the successor business to Moscow-based publisher, distributor, retailer and manufacturer Lifestyle Boardgames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lifestyle, which was launched in 2005, sold all of its publishing rights to Red Cat in 2022, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and says it is now focused solely on its domestic Russian market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian publisher previously won the children-focused Kinderspiel des Jahres award in 2020 with Hedgehog Roll, designed by Urtis \u0160ulinskas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Cat team is headed up by CEO Alexander Peshkov, who is still listed as general director of Lifestyle BoardGames on its website. He is the co-designer of several Lifestyle titles, including Escape from the Asylum<\/a> and Sly Wolf and the Missing Note<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Di Meglio said, “Balconia is [our first title] coming from Armenia. We’re always on the lookout for great games to bring to the English-speaking audience, so we’re always open to more cooperations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s very interesting that the boardgame market is growing so much and new regions of the globe appear on the international scene all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Asia in general has grown a lot in the past years. Boardgames are cultural products, so many products remain local successes, but when one is suitable for the international market, it brings fresh air and novelty. It’s a very interesting inter-cultural process.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that Ares had a bevy of new releases slated for this year, beginning with its Mega Empires<\/a> line, Builders of Sylvan Dale<\/a> and Balconia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that releases later in the year would include Perfect Mismatch and Quartermaster General South Front<\/a>, Sword & Sorcery: Abyssal Legends<\/a>, Viking Route<\/a>, and “maybe a couple of extra surprises we’d like to release around the year’s end”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Di Meglio said, “In general our strategy is to continuing supporting our classic lines, keeping them in print and expanding them gradually, while expanding our catalog towards new directions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“2025 will also see the return of Wings of Glory and Sails of Glory after issues and delays due to moving the production to new factories, but finally our efforts are coming to fruition.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more stories like this direct to your email inbox, click here to sign up for BoardGameWire’s free email newsletter. \n\nAnd if you’ve found our reporting interesting or useful, please consider a paid subscription to help support our journalism!<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

War of the Ring publisher Ares Games is bringing two games from Armenian publisher Red Cat Games – the successor studio to Russia’s Lifestyle Boardgames – to the English language market amid a busy year for the Italy-based business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1524,216,1517,1520,6,1523,1521,1516,1522,1519],"class_list":["post-3696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alexander-peshkov","tag-ares-games","tag-armenia","tag-balconia","tag-board-game","tag-hedgehog-roll","tag-perfect-mismatch","tag-red-cat-games","tag-roberto-di-meglio","tag-war-of-the-ring"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t