French board game publisher Don’t Panic Games has continued its expansion into the North American market, telling BoardGameWire the success of several recent titles had reinforced its confidence in the strategy.

The company has made a name for itself providing French localisations of games including Final Girl, Champions of Midgard and Fantasy Realms since it was co-founded by current director Cédric Littardi in 2013.

But Don’t Panic has also found success publishing its own titles such as Chess-like abstract game Above – and said the performance of that, and several other recent games, had persuaded it to bring more of its titles to North America.

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.

“Games such as Don’t Wake Up Cthulhu!, Red Panda, Luminis, Maiko, and Above have been especially encouraging for us, and the early response to Spyworld has also been very promising.

“That is one of the reasons we are beginning this US expansion with titles such as Spyworld, Luminis, Above, and Maiko, which are also the titles highlighted in our North American launch announcement.

“We also have additional releases planned each quarter this year, including Don’t Drop the Soap! toward the end of the year.”

Recher also works with Japanime Games, which has distributed licensed Don’t Panic titles such as Attack on Titan: The Last Stand and Cowboy Bebop: Space Serenade into North America.

Don’t Panic said those licensed titles would continue to be distributed by Japanime, while the French company’s historical and war line, including Fighters of the Pacific and Fighters of Europe, will continue to be distributed by Ares Games in the US.

Recher said, “What the new US office changes is that Don’t Panic can now directly support additional English-language titles that were not previously represented in the market in the same way.

“For retailers, that means broader access to the catalog, closer communication, more direct follow-up, and stronger on-the-ground marketing support.”

Don’t Panic added that it would be supported in the US by Double Exposure, which will represent the company at both major and smaller conventions – adding that it had a “robust demo schedule” planned over the next few months.

When asked about Don’t Panic’s decision to expand further in the US despite ongoing uncertainty over the country’s tariffs policy – and its effect on board game publishers working in the country – Recher said, “Like many publishers in tabletop gaming, we are watching the tariff situation very carefully. It creates uncertainty across the supply chain, from manufacturing and freight planning to wholesale pricing and retailer margins.

“Our approach is to stay flexible: planning conservatively, reviewing sourcing and logistics options on an ongoing basis, and working closely with our partners to protect continuity of supply as much as possible.

“The current environment is challenging for everyone in the industry, but we believe the best response is to remain pragmatic, adaptable, and transparent with our partners.”

Last summer Don’t Panic bought the IP for Anastyr and Hel: The Last Saga from board game crowdfunding major CMON, which has been selling off its portfolio of games as part of a fightback against heavy losses.

That deal came just 18 months after CMON had itself acquired the pair of titles from financially-devastated board game crowdfunding specialist Mythic Games, which gave up on fulfilling the two Kickstarter campaigns worth a combined $3.2m.

Don’t Panic has offered backers of Mythic’s Anastyr crowdfund “preferential pricing” on pre-orders of its own version of the game, Anastyr Chronicles, and said in a comment shared on Mythic’s Hel: The Last Sage Kickstarter page that it would make a similar offer when it releases its version of that title.

The post French publisher Don’t Panic Games to bring more titles to North America, launches US office first appeared on .

Universal Distribution has agreed exclusive rights to distribute Stonemaier Games titles into US hobby retail, which amounts to about $1.5m of business each year.

Universal has become 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 deal comes four years after Stonemaier picked GTS as its sole US hobby retailer distributor, in addition to retailers being able to buy directly from the publisher itself – something Stonemaier COO Alex Schmidt told BoardGameWire about half of its US hobby retailers choose to do.

He added that the $1.5m figure depended on the year and the company’s releases, saying that Stonemaier’s US business was “quite a bit larger than that” when also including the publisher’s website, selling direct to retailers, selling through Fulfillment By Amazon and the publisher’s US mass market distribution.

Universal, a long-time major player in Canadian board game, TCG and comics distribution, made a push south of the border last May through a takeover of US peer Alliance Game Distributors, following a tumultuous bankruptcy auction of the latter’s former owner Diamond Comics.

That acquisition has been followed by a recent flurry of exclusive US distribution deals from Universal, including tie-ups with Dice Throne and Isle of Cats publisher City of Games.

Schmidt told BoardGameWire, “There are certainly some synergies to be had with Universal. They’d already been our sole hobby distributor in Canada and have done a great job of that which made it an obvious choice to use them in the US as well. Them being one company across both countries allows programs to be implemented once in both regions.

“Universal is also supporting a lot of product lines from other companies that retailers want in their stores. While it’s not directly about our products, we want our distributor in a region to be a premier board game distributor who is filling the needs of our retailers across the board.

“One distributor won’t ever have everything, but Universal is doing a great job of being as much of a one-stop-shop for our retailers as they can be.”

Stonemaier CEO Jamey Stegmaier told BoardGameWire the company spent the first few years working with Aldo Ghiozzi as its distribution broker, before switching to Greater Than Games for a similar role – both of which sold to a variety of distributors.

He said Schmidt became the company’s distribution broker when he joined the company from Greater than Games in 2020, with Stonemaier signing up with GTS in the US and Universal in Canada “soon afterwards”.

Earlier this week it emerged that Stonemaier Games’ diversification of its flagship bestseller Wingspan into a trilogy of standalone titles had powered the company to record revenues of more than $25m last year.

That total eclipsed the company’s previous annual high from the post-Covid board game boom in 2021, and follows the publisher adding Connie Vogelmann’s Wyrmspan in 2024 and the David Gordon and Michael O’Connell design Finspan last year – creating a hefty boost for its overall sales.

The post Universal to become exclusive Stonemaier US hobby retail distributor, for roughly $1.5m of annual business first appeared on .

Board game, TCG and comics distribution major Universal Distribution has agreed an exclusive deal with Dice Throne to become the sole distributor of the company’s products in the US and Canada.

Dice Throne games and add-on packs have previously been distributed by companies including Universal and ACD Distribution, as well as Alliance Game Distributors, which Universal acquired in May last 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.

Those crowdfunds have included lucrative Marvel tie-ins, with the company raising $2.1m for its first Marvel Dice Throne campaign in 2021 and almost $4.3m for an X-Men, Deadpool and co-op experience Kickstarter in 2023.

Universal said the exclusive distribution deal “marks a significant step in supporting Dice Throne’s expanding presence in retail stores, especially as the brand continues to grow its Organized Play program and introduce new product formats designed to increase accessibility and drive community engagement”.

Dice Throne’s Organized Play program is designed to help stores build consistent communities and host recurring events, with kits on offer including promo items, prize support and products needed to run casual or competitive play.

The publisher has also recently introduced a new single hero pack format, with the aim of offering a lower entry point for new players and flexibility for collectors and Organized Play participants.

Dice Throne CEO Casey Sershon, who took on the top role at the company at the start of last year, said, “We are excited to partner with Universal Distribution as our exclusive distributor in the US and Canada.

“Their expertise and strong retail network will help bring Dice Throne to even more players across North America.”

The post Universal Distribution signs exclusive distribution deal with long-time crowdfunding success Dice Throne first appeared on .

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.

More than 400,000 copies of the worker placement game have now been sold, company co-founder Peter Vaughan told BoardGameWire, creating an early smash hit which has underpinned Cardboard Alchemy’s growth since the game’s $2m Kickstarter campaign five years ago.

Vaughan said Flamecraft “and the fans that love it” had been a “game changer” for the company, allowing it to quickly expand from its original two-person team of Vaughan and fellow co-founder Brad Brooks, and paving the way for subsequent successful releases such as Andromeda’s Edge and Critter Kitchen.

He said, “We knew soon after the first crowdfunding campaign that this game would be an evergreen game in our line. At that point, we committed to making more promos, an expansion, merchandise that our fans wanted, and have started work on a standalone sequel game, FlameBound.”

Cardboard Alchemy raised another $1.1m on Kickstarter for sister title Flamecraft Duals in May last year – a follow-up collaboration between Flamecraft designer Manny Vega and the creator of its striking, cozy artisanal dragon artwork Sandara Tang.

The publisher has decided to make the two-player travel-friendly title its first to be self-released and distributed into retail, ending a five-year partnership with Lucky Duck Games and its worldwide localization and licensing division GPN.

The new system sees it enter a partner programme with publisher Allplay, in which Cardboard Alchemy will handle and manage its own retail sales, distribution, conventions and localization, with the latter providing global warehouses, pledge management and e-commerce services.

Vaughan said, “We are excited that retailers can get access to our games and other publishers’ games in one hub, for optimum savings”, adding: “The biggest challenges so far are the ramp up of logistics, operations and sales responsibilities.

“This can be a tough task for a mostly creative team, but we have the players in place and have taken our time to implement this stage.

“We know there will be many things to learn along the way for our small company, but we feel our great games will continue to thrive in retail environments.”

Part of Cardboard Alchemy’s expansion to direct retail has included the recent hire of Patrick Fitzgibbon as hobby retail manager, following seven years of sales at companies including Genius Games, Elf Creek Games, Greater than Games and, most recently, Quartermaster Logistics.

The team also includes Nicole Cutler, who joined the business as director of operations at the end of 2024 after several years working on production and logistics at Arcane Wonders and Pandasaurus Games.

Cutler said that demand for Flamecraft Duals had “far exceeded even our expectations” ahead of its official January 28 release date, with the company moving forward with a third print run of the game before it was even available in wider retail.

That confidence was partly inspired by Cardboard Alchemy’s picking up a big early win in the mass market, with the company agreeing a deal with retail giant Barnes & Noble to get the game on its shelves from early last month.

Vaughan told BoardGameWire, “It is a thrill to see our third title in Barnes & Noble. There has been such a growing diversity of games carried by this strong player in the mass market space.

“Flamecraft and Critter Kitchen are on the shelves at B&N and it seemed a natural fit to add Flamecraft Duals to the party.

“We are honored that Barnes & Noble would commit so early to Flamecraft Duals, and place it prominently in their stores to start the year.”

For global distribution, Vaughan said, “Cardboard Alchemy localized our games previously via the Global Publishing Network, a part of Lucky Duck Games.

“We are thankful for that network, as it has placed Flamecraft in 25-plus languages, Critter Kitchen in a ‘baker’s dozen’ of regions and Andromeda’s Edge in 11 languages so far.

“We now look to work with these publishers directly and invite more partnerships worldwide to distribute our titles.”

Those partners will include existing Cardboard Alchemy collaborator CrowD Games, which previously localised Flamecraft into Russian via GPN, and will now do so for Andromeda’s Edge, Critter Kitchen and Flamecraft Duals.

Like many overnight successes, Cardboard Alchemy’s was actually multiple years in the making. The company was launched by Vaughan and Brooks in 2020 after years of collaboration between the pair across Vaughan’s indie design and development studio Squirmy Beast and Dwellings of Eldervale publisher Breaking Games.

Squirmy Beast partnered with Breaking Games to publish Letter Tycoon in 2015 – with Vaughan providing some of the artwork – and a year later Vaughan joined Breaking as director of development, overseeing games including Brooks’ Rise of Tribes.

Cardboard Alchemy’s first Kickstarter, for Mission Catastrophe in 2020, raised just over $100,000, before the success of the Flamecraft campaign a year later catapulted the company into ongoing success.

The publisher’s next planned Kickstarter will see it crank up the complexity compared to its Flamecraft titles, with the launch of a campaign for Brooks’ co-design Whisperwood, a bag-building heavy strategy game, later this spring.

That game has been co-designed by Asking for Trobils designers Erin McDonald and Cardboard Alchemy developer Christian Strain, the latter of whom also co-designed the solo mode for Critter Kitchen.

Vaughan said, “We’ll be planning over-the-top production (as usual), bringing everything we know about game production to date to the forefront of crowdfunding.”

The post Cardboard Alchemy spreads its wings as ‘game-changer’ Flamecraft sells over 400,000 copies first appeared on .

Kosmos, the German publisher of board games including Catan and the Exit series, has taken full ownership of distribution arm Thames & Kosmos UK amid the retirement of the latter’s founding directors Stephen O’Connor and Joanna Drage.

O’Connor and Drage launched the business as Science Shop in 2009, with Kosmos making the company a subsidiary by buying an 80% stake four years later.

The deal makes T&K UK the German company’s first wholly-owned foreign subsidiary. Kosmos currently has another foreign branch in the USA, named Thames & Kosmos.

Kosmos said in a press release that the buyout of the UK operation was part of the company “consistently pursuing its internationalisation strategy and further expanding its international activities”.

It added that the British market remains “a key component” of Kosmos’ international growth strategy.

Emma Hanlon – T&K UK’s first employee who has been with the business 12 years – and Andrew Morris have taken over as managing directors of the subsidiary.

Kosmos managing director Thilan Tran said, “Stephen O’Connor and Joanna Drage built and successfully led Thames & Kosmos UK with entrepreneurial vision, high personal integrity, and great dedication.

“They have sustainably established the Kosmos brand in the United Kingdom and thus made a significant contribution to the international development of our company. We thank them very much for this achievement and the many years of trusting collaboration.”

Fellow Kosmos managing director Matthias Kienzle, who runs the company in a dual leadership role with Tran, added, “With the new ownership structure and the newly formed management team, we aim to further scale and continuously expand our international sales activities.

“Our focus is on further market penetration of existing product categories and the development of additional growth potential.”

Last year Heiko Windfelder, the Kosmos board game lead who played a key role building up brands including Catan and the Exit family of games, retired after 30 years at the company – making Tran and Kienzle joint leaders of the business.

Two years earlier long-time managing director Michael Fleissner retired, handing over operational management of the German company to Windfelder, Tran and Kienzle.

W Eric Martin from Board Game Beat reported last week that Kosmos’ board game releases this year are set to include Bernhard Weber design Temple Twist, and Happy Holiday by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert.

Kosmos is also celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Exit series of games, which have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide across more than 50 titles.

New Exit releases this year will include a young children-focused Puzzle Fun in the Sea title and a Fourth Wing game based on the Empyrean novels by Rebecca Yarros, while the company will also be sending an armoured truck around Germany in which players can solve Exit puzzles.

The post Kosmos takes full ownership of distribution arm Thames & Kosmos UK amid retirement of latter’s founding directors first appeared on .

European board game distributor and fulfillment company Meeples Group is continuing its rapid expansion since its launch operating out of attic five years ago, with a move to a huge new warehouse in the wake of soaring numbers of orders last year.

Meeples’ new warehouse has five-times more capacity than the 1,400 sq m building it moved into towards the end of 2024 – itself a significant upgrade from the 300 sq m warehouse it had worked from before.

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.

Toorenburg said the business had “exploded in a positive way” since the summer of 2024, bolstering its clientele by signing deals with publishers including Steamforged Games, Academy Games, Magpie Games, Arcane Wonders and IV Studio.

He said, “I think in 2025 we managed to get our company out of the start-up phase and into the scale-up phase. We still have many things to improve, and we keep expanding our team with valuable members that add value to both our clients and our company.

“We feel we are now a settled company within the board game industry, and people know how to find us. For me personally, the most exciting thing in 2025 was the release of our own distribution platform. On this platform we have connected publishers with retailers, while we still take charge of the infrastructure, shipping, and payments. Our publishers can upload their own products on the platform, track their sales live, and decide on their own how to market them and how to price them.

“All retailers can see the products of the publishers and the contact details of the publishers. This way, they can order from all our partner publishers in smaller quantities, while if they would like to buy in bigger quantities, they can still reach out to the publisher to make a purchase directly at the publisher instead of through us. When this happens, we just ship it out and all parties win.

“What makes the platform even more special is that we give a referral code to all our publishers. If they share this with retailers and the retailers order with that code, the publisher gets rewarded with a 5% cashback on the total order value for as long as the retailer uses this code.

“With this concept, our local publishers from, for example, Latvia can promote brands of all other small publishers and big publishers next to selling their own products and earn a little bit on the side. The reward is then given from our commission on the sale as a thank you.”

Toorenburg added that the Netherlands-based business was currently looking into a ‘test case’ operation in Canada, beginning with Terraria from recent new client Paper Fort Games, and was also exploring setting up a consolidation warehouse in China together with an unnamed partner from the industry and long-time partner Maersk, the Denmark-based shipping giant.

He said the China-based space would allow the company to consolidate all freight for its publishers, “which will create a lot of extra value and lower freight prices”.

Toorenburg added, “Our biggest challenge is keeping up with the scaling that is needed for our growth. We started our company without any external investments and are still doing it on our own. Because of this, we need to be careful while building our team and be smart when hiring and expanding it.

“From our warehouse department, the scaling is going very well, but in our office department this has been a bit more of a struggle to find the right personnel that fit our company’s standards. We are really happy that our team is forming a more stable base now, but this has definitely been a challenge and will continue to be a challenge as long as we grow the way we are growing.

“The positive thing is that we feel our office and operations team will be fully thriving by April 2026, with some really good new people on board. This, in combination with some new innovations that we will be launching soon, will create the base where we can speed up our growth and create stability at the same time.”

Toorenburg told BoardGameWire that volatility around last year’s US tariff war with China saw rising publisher attention focused on the EU market, and “somewhat less” of a focus on the US.

But he added, “Now, after a year, we see that the market has cooled down and that publishers are planning ahead again.

“Based on our understanding, tariffs are currently around 30% on the production price. When comparing this to the VAT system in, for example, The Netherlands, which applies 21% on the total order value, it remains a relatively manageable cost.

“With proper planning, including thoughtful pricing strategies, this can be effectively incorporated into the overall business model and still result in a healthy and sustainable business case.”

Toorenburg said, “There are two risks that can happen and that we are cautious about. One of them is that we need to keep up with the scaling. If we can’t keep up the pace, both on our systems side and on the personnel side, it will be a very challenging year. This is the biggest focus that both my co-founder, Rients-Auke [Rienstra], and I have.

“Next to that, we do have some concerns regarding the geopolitical situation in the world. We feel that tensions are increasing quickly and that economic instability is growing. We already saw this reflected in the difference between the dollar and the euro in 2025.

“If these tensions continue to increase, it is difficult to predict what the impact will be on a hobby-driven market such as the board game industry. Unfortunately, this is not something we have under our control, and we hope that the global situation will stabilize again in the near future.”

The post “Our business has exploded in a positive way”: board game distribution, fulfillment specialist Meeples Group moves from start-up to scale-up with huge warehouse expansion first appeared on .

Hachette has signed an exclusive UK and Ireland distribution deal with Captain Flip publisher PlayPunk, the board game studio launched three years ago by 7 Wonders and Hanabi designer Antoine Bauza and Repos Productions co-founder Thomas Provoost.

The French publishing giant will take over UK and Ireland distribution from Asmodee UK for PlayPunk’s existing titles, the Spiel des Jahres-nominated Captain Flip and Kennerspiel recommended title Zenith, and upcoming expansions Captain Flip: Isla Bomba and Zenith: Secret Agents.

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 – following a decade of Asmodee being the sole distribution partner for its titles in the country.

A statement from PlayPunk said, “We are more than delighted to be working with the Hachette UK team. They are true enthusiasts who have shown nothing but genuine passion for our two games.

“We are confident that Captain Flip, Zenith, and our future titles are in good hands!”

Hachette Boardgames UK CEO Flavien Loisier added, “We are humbled to work with PlayPunk. They have immense industry experience and knowledge, and have set out to produce high-quality, long-lasting games developed with passion and attention to every single detail.

“We can see that passion in the two brilliant titles they have already published. It is their goal to create ageless, evergreen games that make them and their titles a perfect fit for our portfolio. We are beyond excited about this partnership!”

Hachette began a heavy push into board games in 2019 by picking up French tabletop publisher and distributor Gigamic, French distributor Blackrock Games, and by founding in-house publishers Studio H and Funnyfox.

It has since gone on to buy publishers including Le Scorpion Masqué, Sorry We Are French, Catch Up Games, La Boîte de jeu and Hiboutatillus, Canadian board game distributor Randolph, and now runs Hachette branded board game operations in the US, UK and the Benelux region.

Hachette Boardgames UK, which was launched in 2021, currently localises and distributes more than 200 games in the UK and Ireland.

Other distribution deals signed by Hachette Boardgames in the last couple of years have included taking over US distribution rights for Super Meeple from Asmodee USA, scoring a deal to distribute MicroMacro publisher Edition Spielwiese‘s games in the US and UK, and picking up the UK rights for distributing Trefl games.

Bauza and Provoost officially unveiled PlayPunk in the summer of 2023, almost a year after it began quietly hunting for prototype designs to craft into finished games.

Bauza made a name for himself with Ghost Stories in 2008, before going on to design the widely lauded 7 Wonders in 2011 and Spiel des Jahres winner Hanabi in 2013. His other games include 7 Wonders Duel, Draftosaurus, Conan and Terror in Meeple City.

Provoost previously co-founded 7 Wonders and Ghost Stories publisher Repos Productions in 2004, before selling the business to board game giant Asmodee six years ago.

Bauza explained the pair’s decision to strike out and launch their own publisher in this extensive interview with BoardGameWire in 2023.

The post Hachette becomes exclusive UK, Ireland distributor for Captain Flip publisher PlayPunk, taking over from Asmodee UK first appeared on .