x
search
menu

Asmodee Has (Apparently) Acquired Ystari Games and Pearl Games

Asmodee Has (Apparently) Acquired Ystari Games and Pearl Games
Board Game Publisher: Asmodee
Marabunta, for those who don't know, is a publishing brand within Asmodee that was founded in 2012 and that debuted with the release of Paolo Mori's Libertalia. As I noted in 2012, Marabunta is "run by those who qualify as hardcore gamers within Asmodee". Why was Marabunta founded? Despite the associations that many people have for Asmodee — 7 Wonders, Seasons, Eclipse, and so on — most of the titles released at that time by Asmodee itself were mainstream or family titles such as Jungle Speed and Barbeque Party. (Asmodee distributes in France, Germany, the U.S. and elsewhere many titles developed by other publishing houses, but distribution is not the same as development and publication.) Rather than send out mixed messages to customers who had developed an association between Asmodee and a certain style of game, the company founded Marabunta in order to create a brand for the more-involved games that it wanted to publish.

Marabunta released a few more titles between 2012 and today — French versions of Ascension and Mage Wars, a more attractive version of Masters of Commerce under the name Panic on Wall Street — but it never seemed to be the focus of attention from Asmodee, which instead highlighted the many titles that it was distributing.

On January 21, 2015, as first noted by Swiss gaming blog Gus and Co, Marabunta posted a press release announcing that it would be going into hibernation. Sales of Mage Wars hadn't met expectations, the company no longer has publishing rights to Ascension, and then there was this:

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Roughly translating: "Marabunta has always been a little apart as a publisher. Marabunta is a label more than an actual publishing house, created at the initiative of Croc during a passionate meeting within Asmodee to translate and publish games that we love. Three years later, with Space Cowboys, Days of Wonder, Ystari, Pearl Games and Fantasy Flight Games in the family, space for Marabunta projects is somewhat restricted." Ystari and Pearl are now part of Asmodee? That's news to me, but that appears to be the case given that detail and this closing line from the Marabunta press release: "The passion is still there, but now we'll put our passion in the projects of our friends and colleagues of the core Asmodee studios." I've contacted Asmodee for confirmation that it purchased these two publishers and will update this post once I have more information.

Croc, by the way, is one of the three founders of Asmodee as well as one of the founders of Space Cowboys, and the Space Cowboys team also includes Ystari Games' Cyril Demaegd. Asmodee has distributed Ystari Games in the U.S. since 2013's Prosperity and it became the U.S. distributor for Pearl Games only with 2014's Deus, but my understanding is that Asmodee's relationship with these companies dates back much further in France.

I'll close with this aside from the May 2012 BGG News post that introduced Marabunta:

Quote:
("Marabunta", for those who don't know, is a term describing a swarm of army ants, which tend to engulf whatever they run across. A very evocative name compared to those adopted by many other game publishers!)
Board Game Publisher: Marabunta
Board Game Publisher: Ystari Games
Board Game Publisher: Pearl Games

Related

New Game Round-up: Driving in German Kraftwagen, Working in the Big Easy & Chewing in the Workplace

New Game Round-up: Driving in German Kraftwagen, Working in the Big Easy & Chewing in the Workplace

Jan 21, 2015

• In addition to running Spielworxx, developer Uli Blennemann is also brand manager of board games for ADC Blackfire Entertainment GmbH and he's overseeing the work on Matthias Cramer's...
New Game Round-up: A Quartet from KOSMOS — Paths of Fire, Customers with Hunger, Clay with Kneads & Raccoons of Adventure

New Game Round-up: A Quartet from KOSMOS — Paths of Fire, Customers with Hunger, Clay with Kneads & Raccoons of Adventure

Jan 20, 2015

• Another day brings another wave of titles announced by one of the German publishers that will be showcasing its future releases at Spielwarenmesse 2015. This time the spotlight is on KOSMOS,...
New Game Round-up: Kites from Kotarski, Hands from Van Den Bulk & Drilling from Laurie and Jolly

New Game Round-up: Kites from Kotarski, Hands from Van Den Bulk & Drilling from Laurie and Jolly

Jan 19, 2015

• While looking for news of games that will show up at Spielwarenmesse 2015 in Nürnberg, I ran across a case of games that would be there from a publisher that wouldn't. Dutch publisher White...
New Game Round-up: Yomi Fights for Release, Mr. B Games Announces Big Plans & ABACUSSPIELE Readies Jumbo Cacao Mammoths

New Game Round-up: Yomi Fights for Release, Mr. B Games Announces Big Plans & ABACUSSPIELE Readies Jumbo Cacao Mammoths

Jan 18, 2015

• In 2014, David Sirlin of Sirlin Games ran a Kickstarter campaign for Yomi (second edition), a revamped version of his fighting card game Yomi that had debuted in 2011. That initial version of...
Fresh Releases and Imports from Blue Orange Games – Attila, R, Crab Stack, Thumbs Up! & More

Fresh Releases and Imports from Blue Orange Games – Attila, R, Crab Stack, Thumbs Up! & More

Jan 16, 2015

• Time for more overviews of new games that will be on display at the toy fairs in Nürnberg, Germany and New York City, but in this case many of the same games will be featured by two...
ads