Exploding Kittens has named chief commercial officer Joeri Hoste as its new head of studio, with the long-time game industry exec eyeing further expansion of the company’s namesake hit into a “long-lasting evergreen brand” beyond its big-selling card game.

Hoste joined Exploding Kittens to lead its international business in 2020, following multi-year stints at companies including Hong Kong based board game publisher and manufacturer Ooba Games, toy company BOTI and trading card and collectibles specialist Upper Deck.

He takes the head of studio role at the Asmodee-owned business as former Exploding Kittens CEO Carly McGinnis was named head of the parent company’s global publishing operation last month.

Hoste said in a LinkedIn post that the past six years at Exploding Kittens had been the most rewarding of his career, adding that he was “ecstatic and humbled” to take responsibility for leading the company into the next stage of its development.

He said, “We’ll continue our mission of making great games and creating experiences that bring people together. Exploding Kittens is the game that built its namesake company, and our next challenge will be to develop the IP into a long-lasting evergreen brand that outgrows its original format.

“Exploding Kittens is unique within Asmodee as we combine deep commercial mass market expertise with publishing quirky and irreverent games that disrupt the games category.

“We did not get here by blending in. We succeed because of the talented team that’s willing to be different.”

Exploding Kittens has been a huge commercial success in the wake of its debut title raising almost $8.8m on Kickstarter in 2015.

Last year Exploding Kittens revealed it had sold more than 60 million games as it marked a decade in business – with the company’s growth having already extended well beyond the tabletop.

That has included a partnership with Netflix which expanded the property into mobile gaming and an animated series.

Asmodee bought a 55% majority stake in Exploding Kittens at the end of 2021, and exercised its option to purchase the remaining 45% minority stake last year.

Exploding Kittens has continued to stand out within Asmodee’s portfolio during a difficult period for parts of the US board game market.

Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler singled the company out last November as a particularly strong performer amid economic uncertainty caused by rising prices and US tariffs, adding that US consumers were favouring lower-priced games. Asmodee again highlighted strong Exploding Kittens growth while discussing a 23% year-on-year fall in its US quarterly sales earlier this year.

The promotion comes as Asmodee is making a wider push into social and party games – a category where Exploding Kittens has been one of its strongest brands.

In March the company agreed to pay up to €250m for French social and party game publisher ATM Gaming, with Koegler saying the acquisition would combine ATM’s strength in Europe with Exploding Kittens’ strong position in the US. Asmodee has said it expects the social games category to grow at between 4% and 8% annually between 2025 and 2030, compared with about 4% for the broader board games market.

It also launched US party game studio Moodbox Games last year, a move de Barros described at the time as strengthening Asmodee’s presence in a category where Exploding Kittens and Zygomatic were already seeing strong success.

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Asmodee macht Carly McGinnis, bisherige Chefin von Exploding Kittens, zur neuen Chief Product Officer und EVP Publishing des Konzerns. Sie übernimmt damit ein Markenportfolio, zu dem Catan, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders und Dobble/Spot It gehören, und tritt die Nachfolge von Jean-Sébastien de Barros an, der das Unternehmen nach fast einem Jahrzehnt verlässt. Das berichtet das Fachportal BoardGameWire.

McGinnis berichtet künftig direkt an Asmodee-Chef Thomas Kœgler und rückt ins Executive Management Team auf. Als Chief Product Officer verantwortet sie laut der vor dem Börsengang veröffentlichten Organisationsstruktur die Studios des Konzerns, Franchise-Entwicklung, Lizenzen und Studio-Marketing.

Vom Kickstarter-Erfolg zur Konzernspitze

McGinnis kam 2015 zu Exploding Kittens, im selben Jahr, in dem das gleichnamige Kartenspiel knapp 8,8 Millionen Dollar auf Kickstarter einsammelte. 2019 wurde sie Chief Operating Officer, 2022 Präsidentin, vor einem Jahr schließlich CEO. Unter ihrer Beteiligung wuchs die Marke nach eigenen Angaben auf mehr als 60 Millionen verkaufte Spiele und expandierte über eine Kooperation mit Netflix in mobile Spiele und eine Animationsserie, bei der McGinnis als Co-Executive-Producerin mitwirkte.

„Ich habe das vergangene Jahrzehnt damit verbracht, Exploding Kittens von einem einzelnen Spiel zu einem globalen Unternehmen aufzubauen, und ich freue mich, das Gelernte in das breitere Asmodee-Portfolio einzubringen“, wird McGinnis zu ihrer neuen Rolle zitiert (übersetztes Zitat). Sie sehe eine große Chance, auf den bestehenden Stärken aufzubauen, neue Spiele zu entwickeln und zugleich in Marken zu investieren, die über Jahrzehnte wachsen könnten.

Eigenes Verlagsgeschäft hinkt der Distribution hinterher

Der Wechsel fällt in eine Phase, in der Asmodees eigenes Verlagsgeschäft hinter der Distribution zurückbleibt. Im Geschäftsjahr bis Ende März stieg der Konzernumsatz um 23 Prozent auf 1,68 Milliarden Euro, mehr als 72 Prozent davon aus der Distribution fremder Spiele. Die Umsätze der eigenen Spiele sanken im selben Zeitraum um 5,8 Prozent. Im ersten Quartal des laufenden Geschäftsjahres, April bis Juni, drehte die Kurve leicht ins Plus: Die eigenen Spiele wuchsen um 1,8 Prozent, während der Brettspielmarkt insgesamt um 16 Prozent zulegte.

Kœgler würdigte in einer Mitteilung auch de Barros, der 2017 zu Asmodee kam und den Posten der Chief Product Officer 2024 übernahm. Er habe mit einem „strategischen und strukturierten Ansatz“ starke funktionsübergreifende Teams aufgebaut und unter anderem den Start des bislang größten Sammelkartenspiels von Asmodee, Star Wars: Unlimited, verantwortet (übersetztes Zitat).

Weitere Personalwechsel bei Asmodee in diesem Jahr

McGinnis' Berufung reiht sich in eine Serie von Führungswechseln bei Asmodee in diesem Jahr ein. Im April zog sich Mitgründer Philippe Mouret aus seiner Führungsrolle zurück, Julia Marcelin übernahm die Verantwortung für fünf Studios, während Catan-Studio-Chef Pete Fenlon die Leitung an den früheren Spin-Master-Manager Mike Bisogno abgab. Bereits im November 2025 übergab COO Steve Buckmaster nach fast 24 Jahren das globale Distributionsgeschäft an seine Stellvertreterin Marjolein Lubberman, im vergangenen Jahr kam mit David Preti ein früherer CMON-COO für den Aufbau der Crowdfunding- und Miniaturen-Sparte hinzu.

Wer künftig Exploding Kittens als CEO leiten wird, hat Asmodee noch nicht bekanntgegeben. Der Zeitpunkt der Berufung dürfte kein Zufall sein: Der Konzern treibt mit der bis zu 250 Millionen Euro schweren Übernahme des französischen Partyspiel-Verlags ATM Gaming und dem neuen Partyspiel-Studio Moodbox Games gerade den Ausbau seines Social-Games-Geschäfts voran, einer Kategorie, in der Exploding Kittens bislang zu den stärksten Marken im Konzern zählte. Asmodee rechnet in diesem Segment mit einem jährlichen Wachstum von 4 bis 8 Prozent zwischen 2025 und 2030, verglichen mit rund 4 Prozent für den Brettspielmarkt insgesamt.

Z-Man Games bringt mit „KPop Demon Hunters: Battle for the Spotlight“ eine Team-Variante des Love-Letter-Systems im Setting von Netflix’ Animationserfolg „KPop Demon Hunters“. Design stammt von Love-Letter-Erfinder Seiji Kanai gemeinsam mit Waleed Ma’arouf.

Zwei Teams, HUNTR/X und die Saja Boys, treten laut Verlagsbeschreibung in einem Bühnen-Wettstreit gegeneinander an. Spielende erzeugen mit ausgespielten Karten Fan-Energie für ihr Team und verteidigen damit den magischen Schutzwall Honmoon vor Dämonen. Auf BGG ist das Spiel als Deduktion und Team-Tauziehen mit Handkartenmanagement gelistet, familiär als Teil der Love-Letter-Reihe geführt. Die Schachtel enthält laut ScreenRant 22 Charakterkarten, sechs Team-Referenzkarten sowie Marker- und Zählmaterial für den Bühnen-Wettkampf.

Gespielt wird zu 2 bis 6 Personen, rund 15 Minuten, ab 8 Jahren laut BGG. International hat Z-Man Games den 2. Oktober 2026 als Erscheinungstermin und 14,99 US-Dollar als UVP genannt. Auf BGG sammelt der Titel bislang einen Schnitt von 7,17 aus erst 6 Bewertungen, eine noch sehr kleine Stichprobe.

Vertrieben wird der Titel hierzulande über Asmodee, das ihn auf einer eigenen deutschen Produktseite führt. Einen Preis für den deutschen Markt nennt der Onlinehändler SpieleTaxi: 15,99 Euro, laut eigener Angabe voraussichtlich ab Oktober 2026 lieferbar, ein genauer Tag steht noch nicht fest.

Asmodee has named Exploding Kittens CEO Carly McGinnis as head of its global publishing operation, putting an executive who helped transform a record-breaking Kickstarter game into an international brand in charge of a portfolio including Catan, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders and Dobble/Spot It.

McGinnis has been appointed Asmodee’s chief product officer and EVP publishing to replace Jean-Sébastien de Barros, who leaves the board game giant after almost a decade at the company. She will report directly to CEO Thomas Kœgler and join Asmodee’s executive management team.

The move puts McGinnis into a hugely influential position within the tabletop industry. Asmodee’s chief product officer has responsibility for its studios, franchise development, licensing and studio marketing, according to the organisational structure the company published ahead of its stock market listing last year.

McGinnis’ promotion – Asmodee bought a 55% majority stake in Exploding Kittens at the end of 2021, and exercised its option to purchase the remaining 45% minority stake last year – also comes at an interesting point for Asmodee’s publishing business.

The company has enjoyed huge revenue growth over the past year, but much of that has been powered by its distribution operation and the booming trading card game market rather than sales of its own board games.

Asmodee generated €1.68bn of net sales in the year to the end of March, up 23% – but more than 72% of that came from distributing games published by other companies. Sales of its own board games fell 5.8% over the same period.

That picture improved during April to June, when Asmodee’s own published board game sales returned to growth – albeit by just 1.8% year-on-year – compared with a 16% increase for board games overall.

McGinnis brings to the role experience of helping build one of the board game industry’s most striking success stories of the past decade.

She joined Exploding Kittens in 2015, the year its first game raised almost $8.8m on Kickstarter, and was named COO at the start of 2019, president in January 2022 and CEO a year ago.

Last year Exploding Kittens revealed it had sold more than 60 million games as it marked a decade in business – with the company’s growth having extended well beyond the tabletop.

McGinnis helped develop Exploding Kittens’ partnership with Netflix, which expanded the property into mobile gaming and an animated series, and she was a co-executive producer on the latter.

Asmodee has been on its own push to get its best-known board games turned into films and television shows continues, with streaming giant Netflix picking up exclusive global rights for screen-based adaptations of the huge-selling Ticket to Ride series earlier this year.

That deal, which covers “scripted and unscripted projects” across film, television series, and other formats, came four months after Asmodee agreed a similar deal with Netflix for screen adaptations of its fellow bestseller Catan.

Netflix first teamed up with Asmodee in 2022, when the board game giant worked in the other direction to create a trio of titles based on Netflix shows Squid Game, Stranger Things and Ozark.

Those games have been followed by a Bridgerton-themed version of Love Letter, while Netflix brought Asmodee’s creations to screens for the first time in 2024 with French film Family Pack, which is based on the Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow card game.

McGinnis said of her new role, “I’ve spent the last decade building Exploding Kittens from one game into a global business, and I’m excited to bring what I’ve learned to the broader asmodee portfolio.

“We have incredible games, studios and people around the world, and I see a huge opportunity to build on those strengths, creating great new games while investing in the brands and franchises with the potential to grow for decades.”

Exploding Kittens has continued to stand out within Asmodee’s portfolio during a difficult period for parts of the US board game market.

Kœgler singled the company out last November as a particularly strong performer amid economic uncertainty caused by rising prices and US tariffs, adding that US consumers were favouring lower-priced games. Asmodee again highlighted strong Exploding Kittens growth while discussing a 23% year-on-year fall in its US quarterly sales earlier this year.

The promotion comes as Asmodee is making a wider push into social and party games – a category where Exploding Kittens has been one of its strongest brands.

In March the company agreed to pay up to €250m for French social and party game publisher ATM Gaming, with Kœgler saying the acquisition would combine ATM’s strength in Europe with Exploding Kittens’ strong position in the US. Asmodee has said it expects the social games category to grow at between 4% and 8% annually between 2025 and 2030, compared with about 4% for the broader board games market.

It also launched US party game studio Moodbox Games last year, a move de Barros described at the time as strengthening Asmodee’s presence in a category where Exploding Kittens and Zygomatic were already seeing strong success.

McGinnis’ promotion is the latest in a string of senior personnel changes at the top of Asmodee.

In April Asmodee co-founder Philippe Mouret stepped back from his leadership role, with Julia Marcelin taking responsibility for five studios – Days of Wonder, Repos Production, Libellud, Next Move and Space Cowboys – while veteran Catan Studio head Pete Fenlon handed control of that business to former Spin Master executive Mike Bisogno.

Last November company COO Steve Buckmaster stepped down from his role driving the board game giant’s global distribution operation after almost 24 years with the company and its predecessor business in the UK, replaced by then deputy COO Marjolein Lubberman.

Asmodee has also been moving into crowdfunding and miniatures, hiring former CMON COO David Preti last year to lead a newly-created operation focused on those areas. Its first Zombicide campaign since acquiring the IP subsequently raised more than $4m from over 11,000 backers.

De Barros joined Asmodee in 2017 and became chief product officer in 2024, with a remit covering the group’s studios as well as franchise development, licensing and studio marketing.

Asmodee said he had helped build its publishing capabilities, diversify its brand and IP portfolio and oversee the launch of what it described as its biggest trading card game to date, Star Wars: Unlimited.

Kœgler said, “I want to sincerely thank Jean-Sébastien de Barros for his instrumental leadership and contribution to asmodee over the years.

“As Chief Product Officer, he brought a strong strategic and structured approach to our product organization and built strong cross-functional teams along the way.

“With these elevated publishing capabilities of asmodee that Jean-Sébastien spearheaded, asmodee successfully launched its biggest trading card game to date and broadly diversified its brand and IP portfolios – laying an important foundation for our next phase of growth. I wish him all the best in his next chapter.”

He added, “It is with great pride that I welcome Carly to the position of chief product officer and EVP publishing, reflecting the strength of the talent within our company.

“Her product vision, international experience and collaborative leadership will be invaluable as we strengthen our global portfolio and partnerships.”

Asmodee is yet to announce McGinnis’ successor as CEO of Exploding Kittens.

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