News Digest Episode 141

This is a copy of the “script” we used to organise Brainwaves Episode 141. It is not a full transcript but should give you an overview of the news as we reported it. Quotes are in italics.

Headlines

Embracer splits up

• Embracer group, the Swedish company that owns Asmodee and a whole bunch of computer game studios, has announced a new strategic direction.
• The company will split into 3 separate entities: Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle Earth Enterprises & Friends.
• Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer explained the three companies in an open letter accompanying the announcement.
  • Asmodee is the leading developer, publisher, and distributor of tabletop games on the planet. “Coffee Stain & Friends” will become the leading and most innovative developer of community-driven games for PC/Console and Mobile. “Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends” will be developing immersive world-class entertainment IPs, including the iconic Lord of the Rings, leveraging in-house AAA capabilities and formidable partnerships.
• As part of this restructuring Asmodee is taking on a 900 million euro loan that Embracer Group will use to refinance previous debts the company had. This basically means they have taken on a new loan with lower interest to pay off an older loan, best as we understand it. 
• The loan that Asmodee now has on its books is ringfenced with no recourse to Embracer Group. Basically it is all on Asmodee’s assets and funds and Embracer are not liable for the loan. 
• Kicki Wallje-Lund, Chair of the Board of Embracer Group said
  • “The Board of Directors, together with executive management, propose to transform Embracer Group into three separate, listed companies. This transformation is an important step in unlocking shareholder value. With this new structure, the three entities will be able to focus on executing their core strategies and leveraging their own strengths, providing more differentiated and distinct equity stories to both existing and new shareholders. After careful evaluation of various strategic alternatives, we strongly believe that this decision will benefit all stakeholders and position us for continued success in the future”
• Lars Wingefors finishes the open letter by saying this
  • I would especially like to thank all employees standing with us in the past challenges. Today marks the first day of the new journey, lets join it together and create the future.
• We would like to remind listeners that Embracer fired about 8% of its workforce during the last year, about 1400 people, shuttered major games studios and cancelled a variety of computer game projects. This was all because they missed out on a $2 billion loan from the Saudi Investment fund. 

WOTC ceo steps down

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/56723/wizards-coast-president-resigns

• Cynthia Williams, CEO of Wizards of the Coast, has announced her intention to resign from the company. 
• She told Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, of her move on the 15th of April and it became effective on the 26th of April
• Cynthia joined Wizards of the Coast on February 25h, 2022. Her previous job had been with Microsoft as General Manager and vice president of the gaming eco-system commercial team. 
• Over her time at the company Wizards of the Coast has seen its share price fluctuate and dealt with a tumultuous 2023 which started with the attempt to roll back the OGL, has seen Wizards come under fire for AI art in their products, but also seen the immense success of Baldurs Gate 3, a licensed D&D computer game.  
• A Hasbro representative told tabletop news site Dicebreaker
  • “We’re excited for Cynthia to take the next step in her career and grateful for the contributions she has made in her more than two years at Wizards and Hasbro. We wish her the absolute best in her next endeavor. We have started the search for our next President of Wizards of the Coast and hope to have a successor in place soon.”
• As of recording on the 26th April 2024, no new president has been announced. 
• Before we move on to our next headline another bit of news from the Wizards corner of the hobby, 
• Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast reported better than expected quarter one profits. 
• The part of the company that interests us of course is the gaming segment that covers Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and their digital gaming offer. Sales in this segment of the company were up 7% to $316.3 million from $295.2 million in the same quarter of 2023. This was achieved through digital offerings like baldur’s Gate 3, and Monopoly go, alongside the growth in Magic: The Gathering. 
• Profit in this area of the company rose 60% to $122.8 million. This was mostly down to digital licensing revenue and “cost management”. You will recall they fired 1100 people in the run up to Christmas last year, including some involved in very profitable projects. 
• The net earnings for Hasbro were $59.1 million compared to the same quarter last year where they had a $21.7 million dollar loss

Goliath buys Lucky Duck

• Goliath is a kids & family games publisher with a global reach and has such titles as Rummikub under its banner. It also has an ‘adult’ game studio called Endless Games that has published TV tie in games like The Traitors. Goliath has announced that it has acquired Lucky Duck Games, publishers of Chronicles of Crime, Kingdom Rush, and a load of other titles. 
• Vincent Vergonjeanne, founder of Lucky Duck Games, said
  • Goliath’s entrepreneurial spirit perfectly aligns with ours. This partnership empowers us to continue investing in cutting-edge strategy games while leveraging Goliath’s expansive global distribution network to reach an even broader audience of tabletop gamers’
• Jochanan Golad, CEO of Goliath, said
  • As a global games business, we see there are two major growth areas in games; adult party games and strategy games. Consumers and kidults particularly are playing boardgames like never before. This trend was already there, but the pandemic had greatly accelerated it. 
  • Vincent and the team have done an astounding job in such a short time to become a notable player in the strategy games category. We are very impressed by the games they’ve brought to market. 
• Vincent and the management team will run Lucky Duck Games as an independent studio within the Goliath group of companies. 
• Goliath of course recently bought Prospero Hall, transferring the rights to those games to Goliath, but not most of the people. 
• Thanks to Chris Priscott from our Discord for brining this story to our attention.

News

Japon Brand joins CMON

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/56786/japon-brand-love-letter-machi-koro-to-join-cmon-limited

• Cool Mini or Not, or CMON as they are more commonly known have added a new company to their portfolio. 
• Japon Brand was formed in 2006 to promote and produce Japanese Tabletop Games for the global market. The brand has hits like Love Letter and Machi Koro under its banner. The brand will continue as an independent agent under the agreement 
• Japon brand president Nomuro Akio said
  • “The conditions surrounding Japan’s tabletop games industry have continued to change over the last 10 year. “More independent designers want to exhibit their work overseas, and more buyers are visiting Tokyo Game Market from abroad. Unfortunately, social and economic circumstances make overseas distribution a far-off prospect for most independent designers…. We will do our best to make sure that the world knows the immense talent we have here in Japan and what that talent is capable of.”
• CMON COO David Preti said of the  
• “Japon Brand has always been an incredible ambassador of Japanese game design to the rest of the world,” he said. “This core value is extremely important to me, and we’re honored to be a part of that long tradition.”

Kickstarter implements late pledges 

https://updates.kickstarter.com/first-look-late-pledges-on-kickstarter

• Kickstarter may have been the original crowdfunding platform, but over the last few years it has seen that dominance challenged by backerkit and gamefound. 
• In order to try and get back some of its lost audience, Kickstarter has recently announced the addition of Late Pledges as a feature on the site. 
• While backerkit and gamefound have had these features for a while, it has always been through third party channels that late pledges were available to Kickstarter backers. 
• From the press release under the headline ‘Why Late Pledges?’
  • Often, backers come across projects they wish they’d known about sooner, and creators find post-campaign buzz they wish they could capitalize on. In the past, creators have turned to third-party services to do this, which means adding extra steps for the creators themselves and their backers.
  • Now, we’re integrating Late Pledges directly into Kickstarter, erasing the need for third-party players and embedding a streamlined process right where your community is already supporting you. This means creators can continue to offer rewards and engage with and expand their backer community effortlessly, while backers get another shot at supporting projects they believe in, post-campaign.
  • With Late Pledges, we’re setting the stage for even more support and even bigger success stories. That’s a future we can get behind.
• Thanks to Corey from our Discord for bringing this story to our attention

D&D is good for you?

https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/81119/1/JCU_Merrick%20et%20al%202023%20AAM.pdf

• A study from Cook University in Australia has been looking at the benefits that Dungeons and Dragons can give to its players.
• Alyssia Merrick, Wendy Wen Li, and Dan J Miller published their research in the Game for  Health Journal. That research is titled “ A Study on the Efficacy of the Tabletop Roleplaying Game Dungeons & Dragons for improving Mental Health and Self-Concepts in a community sample”
• The study took 25 participants and asked them to play 8 weeks of D&D in 1 hour sessions.
• A special scenario was created for the study and the games were run by local GMs who had experience running the game. 
• The study was trying to establish the effects on participants mental health over the course of the trial period. Participants were surveyed pre, mid and post participation in the trial. 18 of the participants also completed a further 1 month follow up survey.
• We will link to the full research so you can read it for yourself and check their working.
• The study concluded like this
  • This study quantitatively evaluated the effects of a TTRPG, D&D, on mental health and self-concepts among a community samples. Eight weeks of exposure to D&D was associated with significant reductions in depression, anxiety and stress and significant gains in self-esteem and self-efficacy. These improvements were maintained at a 1-month follow-up (relative to baseline). The results add to a growing evidence base for the potential use of D&D as a preventative or intervention tool to promote wellbeing. The results provide an impetus to conduct randomised controlled trials into the topic in the future.
• The research does point out that this is a very small group and there are several factors not accounted for in the range of people they could get to participate in the trial. They would like to take these ideas and do a wider trial with a broader range of particpants. 

Steve Jackson Game Sales down

https://www.sjgames.com/general/stakeholders

Steve Jackson Games, the publishers of Munchkin, Car Wars, and a slate of other games, has announced a downturn in its financial fortunes.

• Reporting to its stakeholders the company announced gross sales for 2023 were $3.5million, down from the $4.7million they saw in 2022. 
• The company says that the situation is not an existential threat to its future.
• Steve Jackson wrote
  • Cash flow was acceptable. It was not a profitable year, though. We have identified and dealt with some of the money-losing issues; others will be harder. We are working on it. (No fear; we have plenty of runway left. I just hate to use it.)
• He goes on to detail some of the highs and lows the company experienced over the year, the turnover of staff and most interestingly a part on the state of the industry. He starts this segment by saying
  • It is a golden age for gamers, with more variety and sheer volume than ever before. But it’s a rough time for even the biggest publishers – all that volume represents competition! Some companies have had to do massive layoffs or cutbacks. But others thrive.
• He then continues by highlighting the increased cost of printing in China, the strain on the global distribution network, and how repeated printing delays pushed many of their releases into 2024. 
• Jackson publicly announces their priorities for 2024 and reflects on those thye mentioned for 2023. The company is focusing on getting projects out the door that they are already committed to. This is alongside more Munchkin releases and a secret project that Jackson says will be announced by the end of the year.

Jobs, Opportunities, and Events

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TabletopJobs

Patreon Shoutouts

Kevin Bertram

James Naylor

https://naylorgames.com

Shaun Newan
game-a-lot.fun/en
facebook.com/gamealotboardgames

Our Patreon

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Fanroll

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Outro

Clue TV series

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/clue-film-tv-adaptations-hasbro-sony-1235979732

• Last time we finished with a story about Monopoly coming to the silver screen. And we’re still sticking with tabletop and the visual media. 
• According to the entertainment magazine Variety, a deal has been struck between Tristar Pictures (owned by Sony), Sony PIctures Television and Hasbro Entertainment over film and TV rights for the murder mystery Cluedo (or Clue in America)
• It’s not the first time Cluedo has leapt off the board. There are stage shows, there were game shows, a miniseries in 2011 and the most famous version, the 1985 film which released with three different endings. 
• Cue more plugging of Clue film 

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