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Well Asmodee carries on swallowing up the completion with the acquisition of long time industry stalwart Mayfair games

from facebook

Mayfair Games
..
As of today, the management team at Mayfair Games, Inc. announces we will wind down game publishing. After 36 years, this was not an easy decision or one we took lightly, but it was necessary. Once we had come to this conclusion, we knew we had to find a good home for our games which is when we reached out to Asmodee.

We are pleased to announce that we have sold our games to Asmodee North America, who have acquired all the assets of Mayfair Games, Inc. This acquisition includes the product line for both Mayfair Games, Inc and Lookout Games, GmbH.

We would like to take a moment to say - Thank You!
Thank you to the many retailers, reviewers, customers, industry partners, and volunteers, who made us a success over the past 36 years! You helped bring our games to game stores and cafes, conventions, libraries, schools, kitchen tables, backyard patios, family vacations, and more... where thousands of fans have been introduced to this great world of board gaming. Thank you!!

Not cool man. not surprising either though.

Remind me what did Mayfair publish?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Remind me what did Mayfair publish?

Cat an I think is their big game. Lots of others, but their store is down for....maintenance.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Remind me what did Mayfair publish?

Just from wikipedia:

1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons and other 18XX games
Agricola
Bang!
The Settlers of Catan and other Catan games
Caverna
Cosmic Encounter
Encounters[10]
Empire Builder games
Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King
Patchwork
Role Aids
Saboteur
Sim City: The Card Game
Steam
Tigris and Euphrates

Of those Catan, Caverna, saboteur and Tigris and Euphrates were all very well received and considered great games, And i imagine will be the ones Asmodee keeps in circulation or gives preference too.

I have to say i find Asmodees swallowing of the tabletop industry a little concerning. on the one hand it's good that the IP of these games is kept by someone so that it isn't lost when small companies go under, But if asmodee stretch themselves too thin then we may never see them again anyway, and if they go under they'll potentially be taking the rights to hundreds of games with them.

And here I was worried about warlord buying small miniature manufacturers.

Only real worry is whether or not they’re borrowing to continue their expansion.

If they’re not, relatively low risk.

If they are? Well, that’s what tends to put companies out of business, as drops in sales can mean they struggle to service their debt.

Catan was sold or spun off last year to Catan studios and probably isn't part of the deal. This could just be a retirement check for the principals in Mayfair at this point.

 ThaneCawdor wrote:
Catan was sold or spun off last year to Catan studios and probably isn't part of the deal. This could just be a retirement check for the principals in Mayfair at this point.

Take a WILD guess who owns catan studios...

I'll give you a hint, it starts with A and ends with Smodee.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/10/mayfair-games

Seems Mayfair was mostly involved with publishing games they had the English language publishing rights for, such as Catan and Agricola, both of which are solid games, as well as a variety of train games. As far as I can tell, they haven't really published any games of their own in a long time, it's been mostly English language distribution.

And I guess, if they lost their Catan license, there's not a lot they could have done to save their business.

Many moons ago, Mayfair Games published the DC Heroes RPG, but they lost that license and sold off the rights to that RPG's ruleset, that was later published as the Blood Heroes RPG.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Only real worry is whether or not they’re borrowing to continue their expansion.

If they’re not, relatively low risk.

If they are? Well, that’s what tends to put companies out of business, as drops in sales can mean they struggle to service their debt.

Asmodee themselves turned over substantially more than GW for the equivalent accounting period, £172m vs £108m, but more importantly they are part of a multi billion Euro group of companies.

They're not going anywhere regardless of how the deal was financed.

Neither was Woolies.

Or BHS.

Or any other large company that hit the skids ever....

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Neither was Woolies.

Or BHS.

Or any other large company that hit the skids ever....

Are you basing this on anything here, or is that another spaghetti/wall exercise?

BHS was a victim of financial improprieties, and Woolworths were mismanaged and failed to move with the times. Neither of them were in any way negatively impacted by borrowing to expand.

But yeah, subsidiary of multi billion pound company posting substantial double digit growth YOY, while simultaneously recording its own substantial growth, totally the same thing.

 nicromancer wrote:


I have to say i find Asmodees swallowing of the tabletop industry a little concerning. on the one hand it's good that the IP of these games is kept by someone so that it isn't lost when small companies go under,...

Not necessarily good. Just look at what happened to Avalon Hill's vast library when Hasbro bought them. Although this isn't really the same situation, Asmodee's business focus isn't the same as Hasbro's.

It isn't the games that they do that will have an impact, it is more how does this impact the Conventions that Mayfair Games primarily run like Origins Game Fair. So does this mean Origins Game Fair will now be hosted by Asmodee or will Mayfair continue doing game events, just not publishing.

I believe it is a good thing for the board game hobby, that Asmodee continues to grow, because it will lead to more people being exposed to quality board games.

I don't believe it will affect the diversity of games very much, as continued interest in board games will ensure there's an interest in playing and designing a wide variety of games. Having more people exposed to games can only be a good thing, IMO.

Also, Asmodee make good games, this isn't a watered down Hasbro-type shop. I have confidence in them.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 nicromancer wrote:


I have to say i find Asmodees swallowing of the tabletop industry a little concerning. on the one hand it's good that the IP of these games is kept by someone so that it isn't lost when small companies go under,...

Not necessarily good. Just look at what happened to Avalon Hill's vast library when Hasbro bought them. Although this isn't really the same situation, Asmodee's business focus isn't the same as Hasbro's.

Did you stop reading halfway through my sentence before quoting it? The next half of the sentence says that if Asmodee go under they'll be taking hundreds of games with them.

 nicromancer wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 nicromancer wrote:


I have to say i find Asmodees swallowing of the tabletop industry a little concerning. on the one hand it's good that the IP of these games is kept by someone so that it isn't lost when small companies go under,...

Not necessarily good. Just look at what happened to Avalon Hill's vast library when Hasbro bought them. Although this isn't really the same situation, Asmodee's business focus isn't the same as Hasbro's.

Did you stop reading halfway through my sentence before quoting it? The next half of the sentence says that if Asmodee go under they'll be taking hundreds of games with them.

I did read it, I rather specifically quoted the specific point I wanted to specifically address. Your other point, that I did not quote, was not relevant to that, which is why I did not quote it.

The IP of a smaller company can still be effectively lost, even when bought by a larger company. Again, see my example of Avalon Hill.

 Zingraff wrote:
And I guess, if they lost their Catan license, there's not a lot they could have done to save their business.

fwiw, Mayfair didn't lose the license?. : http://mayfairgames.com/news/asmodee-acquires-catan-mayfair-games

SKOKIE, IL – January 7, 2016
As of today, Asmodee North America has acquired the license for the English language publishing and sales of Catan™ from Mayfair Games, Inc.. From this, Catan Studio, Inc. has formed and becomes the newest creative unit in the Asmodee group. Mayfair Games will continue to do business as an independent company publishing both Mayfair and Lookout Games products.

Mayfair Games (MGI) will assist Catan Studio, Inc. and Asmodee North America in the promotion of the Catan brand including but not limited to the continued coordination of the 2016 Catan tournament schedule, Catan Day 2016 and the 2016 Catan World Championship.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Not necessarily good. Just look at what happened to Avalon Hill's vast library when Hasbro bought them. Although this isn't really the same situation, Asmodee's business focus isn't the same as Hasbro's.

AFAIK, Like Hasbro did, Asmodee's been cherry-picking which games to promote from the companies they acquire. That's good in that the mass market will be exposed to the best hobby games, that's bad in that these companies have games that hobbyists also enjoy but may be dropped from the market. But, as the rest of the quote says, I also don't think it will affect the overall diversity of games in the hobby market. The barrier to entry, particularly with KS and crowdfunding, is too low for others not to enter. In a way, it's like tail theory, with Asmodee trying to be at the large end of the tail, and other companies, including newcomers, staying in the tail. I'm curious where CMON will fit in all this, although I still think they're in the tail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail