CMON’s sale of Cthulhu: Death May Die is the latest move in its drive to battle the huge losses the business has chalked up in the past couple of years – and comes alongside the company announcing a new share sale worth 20% of its existing share capital<\/a> in an attempt to raise money for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CMON\u00a0posted losses of nearly $7m<\/a>\u00a0in the first half of this year\u00a0and another $3m across 2024<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 figures which dwarf the overall $4.2m profit it managed to make\u00a0over the previous nine years combined<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asmodee’s buyout of the Rob Daviau, Eric Lang and Marco Portugal designs is the second acquisition in its reignited strategy of buying up smaller board game publishers, distributors and IPs<\/a> – and follows the company bringing in David Preti, the recently-resigned COO of CMON, in May<\/a> to head up its newly-launched crowdfunding and miniatures operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Preti spent eight years at CMON from 2016 as creative director and COO, and was an architect of its growth into one of board gaming\u2019s biggest crowdfunding-focused publishers, raising tens of millions of dollars across campaigns for miniatures-focused titles such as its flagship Zombicide series and its Massive Darkness and Marvel and DC United titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His hire by Asmodee in the newly-created role \u2013 head of crowdfunding strategy and miniature lines \u2013 is a notable one for the industry giant, which until now has barely touched the crowdfunding space through any of its myriad studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only crowdfunding campaign from an Asmodee-owned company to date is believed to be Lookout Games\u2019 Kickstarter for the Grand Austria Hotel: Let\u2019s Waltz! Expansion & Deluxe Upgrade<\/a>, which raised about \u20ac383,000 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asmodee\u2019s only other exposure to crowdfunding is thought to be via the company Exploding Kittens, in which it made a strategic investment short of a buyout in 2021. That business has since raised more than $977,000 in a Kickstarter campaign for Hand to Hand Wombat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cthulhu: Death May Die buyout will see Asmodee take on responsibility for fulfilling CMON’s Gamefound campaign for the game’s latest core box, Forbidden Reaches – which raised more than $3.9m from over 13,000 backers in December last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CMON raised about $2.4m for its first Cthulhu: Death May Die campaign<\/a> on Kickstarter in 2018, and followed that by hauling in $3.4m from over 21,000 backers for follow-up campaign Fear of the Unknown<\/a> in late 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asmodee CEO Thomas K\u0153gler said, “Cthulhu: Death May Die is a strong brand with exciting development potential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Our newly created crowdfunding team, led by David Preti, is excited to oversee the fulfilment of the 2025 crowdfunding campaign of Cthulhu: Death May Die – Forbidden Reaches, which has generated great anticipation among players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “As our second bolt-on acquisition since our listing on Nasdaq Stockholm, it is fully aligned with our value-accretive M&A strategy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n CMON has been scrambling to stem its losses since the start of this year,\u00a0laying off staff and halting new game development and campaign launches in March<\/a>, and\u00a0selling off a string of its IPs<\/a>\u00a0-including Blood Rage, Rising Sun and\u00a0Zombicide \u2013 in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month the company sold off the global headquarters it bought in Singapore in 2017 to claw back about $2.4m \u2013 although that amount is still a drop in the ocean for a company\u00a0which saw its revenue slump by more than $12m in the first half of this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CMON has also added extra charges for backers of its Marvel United: Witching Hour and Cthulhu: Dark Providence pre-orders, asking backers to pay an extra $0.69 and $2.30 respectively to cover tariff costs it said it \u201ccannot absorb given our current financial position\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company announced in July that rather than focusing on large scale, miniatures heavy crowdfunding campaigns, the company had pivoted to releasing several small-box games direct to retail, some of which are expected to make their debut at Spiel Essen later this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its remaining library of crowdfunded titles still includes big hitters such as the Marvel United range<\/a> and DC Super Heroes United<\/a>, which have raised more than $18m between them across four crowdfunding campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/David-Preti.png\")
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