Opinion: Asmodee Has Become the Disney of Board Games

On February 9, 2018, board game publisher Mayfair Games closed its doors after 36 years. After the decision was made, Mayfair reached out to another board game publisher, Asmodee, with the opportunity to purchase all of Mayfair’s titles as well as their subsidiaries Lookout Games and GmbH. Asmodee spent the money and now owns everything left of Mayfair. I say “left” because in 2016 Asmodee bought all english version rights to Mayfair’s biggest title, Settlers of Catan. Now, just 2 short years later, Mayfair is closing and Asmodee owns all the assets. As an isolated incident, this seems like an unfortunate series of events, but with context to Asmodee’s actions throughout recent years, this may be pointing towards a much more concerning issue.

The hobby board game industry has grown incredibly popular. According to AdWeek, global board game sales hit 9.6 billion dollars in 2016, and interest doesn’t seem to be waning any time soon. With such notable and ever-growing success, it seems inevitable that cultivation in hobbyist board-gaming would also increase, and in turn, investors would want to capitalize on such a profitable industry. Nonetheless, I did not expect us to get where we are today.

Huge Games Asmodee Now Publishes or Distributes

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I would wager that a vast majority of any board game that an average American has heard of is owned by one of two companies, Hasbro or Asmodee. This ranges from more widely known casual/family games like Monopoly and Risk, to designer games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Arkham Horror. But what is the impact of two companies owning so much of a market in such high demand? What room is left between these towering names? Let’s start by taking a look at these two companies and how they came to be.

Hasbro and Asmodee

First is Hasbro, a titanic toy company that acquired most of its board gaming clout by the early months of 2000. Hasbro acquired Parker Brothers (Monopoly, Clue) and Milton Bradley (Battleship, Axis & Allies) before absorbing them into their Hasbro Gaming subsidiary. Hasbro also owns Wizards of the Coast (Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Pokemon Trading Cards) and a few other lesser publishers. These products make up a very large section of the hobbyist market, but Hasbro has since calmed any acquisitions in this growing market and instead simple developed from within.

There are still a few notable game companies that release titles on a wider scale though. Smash Up publisher, Alderac Entertainment Group, GMT Games, Zombicide Publisher CoolMiniorNot, and Gloomhaven’s Developer and publisher, Cephalofair Games are all examples of those carving out their own space between the two tabletop giants. That said, when consulting hobby games beloved site, boardgamegeek.com, you’ll find that Asmodee owns a huge number of the top 100 games voted on by tabletop enthusiasts.

After reaching out to many developers, execs, and store owners, many of them were unwilling to comment on the impact of Asmodee’s recent movements for fear of jeopardizing their contracts. Some of those I reached out to were independent developers, some employees of Asmodee subsidiaries, and others without current ties to Asmodee, but admitted that they were all afraid to “roll the dice” on future opportunities. (I appreciated the pun.) To me, this in itself, is a concern.

Gary Ray, owner of Black Diamond Games, gave his take as both a games hobbyist and owner of a local brick and mortar store with a high volume of traffic. Speaking about conditions before Asmodee’s growth, he said, “The board game market is the last frontier… the last market that didn’t have a market leader. Every other department in the game trade, miniatures, CCG’s (collector card games), role-playing… has a market leader. Hobby board games didn’t have one until Asmodee went on their acquisition ‘rampage’. If I was to divide up my sales by manufacturer before all of this, nobody was more than say… 10% of the market.” He went on to talk about the opportunity this presented. “I had kinda felt like someone could do it. I was kind of expecting it. Good for them.”

But the creator of the Kickstarter indie success game, Camp Grizzly, and Co-Founder of Ameritrash Games, Jason Topolski had a different perspective, saying, “It's kind of nuts how they are buying them all up! I feel like we will get less original titles if they are dealing with Asmodee and Hasbro oversight.“

Tony Gullotti, Director of Sales at board game publisher, Arcane Wonders, told us, “Asmodee’s acquired a significant portion of the hobby board gaming segment of the industry. However, their movements on the distribution side with their MAPP (Minimum Advertised Price Policy) programs are what are truly having an impact.”

As for MAPP, it does seem to promote civility within the marketplace. The main aspects of this policy focus on even the playing field between retailers and serves the brick and mortar, “mom and pop” stores Asmodee believes truly serve the gaming community. The policy sets a strict standard of 20% off MSRP as the minimum price that retailers under its policies can advertise for ANA products. Gary Ray of Black Diamond Games also gave us some insight on this policy, saying, “Store owners are selling at near cost online, therefore devaluing the games marketplace... So Asmodee coming in with MAPP and having some brand de-value protection, for me, ...helps me quite a bit. Unfortunately, that does mean that now you have to go through one distributor and have to deal with that relationship… and if they’re out (of a desired game), they’re out.”

Kickstarter's Ups and Downs

Arcane Wonders’ Director of Sales Tony Gullotti commented on the crowd-funding site, saying, “From the creative side, Kickstarter allowed people to gain funding up-front in an industry with a lot of creativity where the games may not otherwise have been created.” He also noted, “It’s (also) becoming much more a sales channel for people to pre-order games that will be out the following year for small/mid-sized companies, or a testing ground for ideas that would otherwise be too risky, excluding companies that have built it into their business model from the start.”