Asmodee acquires Days of Wonder

Looks like Asmodee and Days of Wonder are "merging," the result of which means that DoW will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Asmodee. Not sure what it changes in day-to-day stuff, but pretty big news nonetheless.

Here's the link...

Wow. I'm surprised Asmodee has the cash to swing that.

bfkiller wrote: Wow. I'm surprised Asmodee has the cash to swing that.

Asmodee has lots of money - I think publicly they announced a turnover of over 120 million euros in the last year or two.

Asmodee is a publisher, a distributor, and has its fingers in some other things.

Huh. I didn't realize they were such a big player. I don't pay close attention to the business side of the hobby, but I always assumed they were sort of middle-tier.

Asmodee is one of the major players in the European games and toys business. They likely rake in more from distribution than publishing, so effectively what WE see as Asmodee games really aren't their bread and butter.

This is pretty damn big news...I really don't know who benefits more out of this, DoW or Asmodee. The only think is that DoW's catalog in the past couple of years hasn't been particularly strong outside of Ticket to Ride (which will ALWAYS be a breadwinner for them) and Memoir '44. Small World does well enough, I suppose, but they've kind of flagged in recent years. But Asmodee has continued to expand in the US, so it's a logical merger.

It's pretty significant that Asmodee is retaining the DoW brand, I think that speaks to the ongoing familiarity of it and its value. I'd really like to see Asmodee work to bring back that DoW "feeling" from 2004, 2005, 2006 when a DoW game was an EVENT.Five Tribes looks pretty promising, but it still doesn't have that "phenomenon" cache like TTR or even Battlelore had (well, at least for its first couple of months.

This does put two major non-Kickstarter brands in bed with each other, I wonder if this kind of consolidation we'll see happening a few more times over the next couple of years.

I'm really kind of surprised that FFG hasn't made a play to acquire another company or two.

I agree Barnes, I think DoW had that "wonderful feeling" with each of its games.

I have the impression that FFG operates on a generally lower margin. Their stuff is *everywhere*. The distribution rivals WotC games.

DOW does make some good product and has a very distinct look an feel to its products. I can't imagine that Asmodee would change that.

I hope the means that we can see some of DOWs oop games come back.

This doesn't really feel like much of a surprise on second consideration. DoW's output was never huge, but the company had largely faded into irrelevance (apart from the obvious cash cows).

I am a big fan of this merger as now I don't have to try and tell the two apart anymore.

Barnes wrote: Five Tribes looks pretty promising, but it still doesn't have that "phenomenon" cache like TTR or even Battlelore had

You won't like Five Tribes. It's a very thinky, analysis paralysis Medium Weight Euro that is all about heads down play as you calculate your move. It has the Thunder Alley 7 player syndrome where you can't calculate your move until your turn arrives and then you're stuck in this several minute analysis as you think through dozens of moves to find the best one. It has an innovative chief mechanic (All Aboard The Meeple Train) but is otherwise a write-off. The theme doesn't work at all either, completely pasted on and has no meaning.

I was shocked when I saw this. However, it seems to be a logical fit for both companies. I hope (like others) that this means some of their out of print designs will come back.

Also, and I might be wrong about this...doesn't Days of Wonder only go through one specific distributor? Isn't that the reason why their games almost never go on sale and are always in the $45+ range? I thought I remember reading something about that a long time ago, but I could be waaaaay off.

I think Days of Wonder is still producing some of the nicest looking, most accessible games in the business. Cargo Noir gets a bad rap, Relic Runners is the type of game Barnes would swoon over right now....and Five Tribes looks incredible. I read in the BGG article that the person who will eventually be in charge of DoW at Asmodee had a lot to do with pushing to get Five Tribes published. Apparently, Five Tribes is one of the heaviest designs they've done in years. So perhaps it might signal a change in what they put out.