Why the reference to "Flat Prod" in the article's title? Flat Prod is the official owner of Tric Trac, with Maurin previously owning 51% of that company while Plume Finance, a company owned by Asmodee co-founder Marc Nunes, owned the other 49%, an arrangement entered into in 2009, according to JeuxZoom.
• After more than twenty years of covering games on a quarterly basis, Counter magazine released its final issue in January 2018. Issue #78, as well as other recent digital-only issues, are available in the BGG Store.
• Designers Nuno Sentieiro and Paulo Soledade have joined the staff of publisher What's Your Game? as full-time designers and developers, doubling the number of people at WYG, which intends to release more titles in 2018 than in previous years. Says Sentieiro, "We will design games exclusively for WYG, as well as work in the development of other designer projects." As part of this development, the publisher has moved from Berlin, Germany to Leiria, Portugal.
• Along similar lines, in February 2018 Stronghold Games tripled its staff, adding Bill Bricker as director of art and marketing and Pauline Milano as director of administration. The publisher also moved from New Jersey to Florida and introduced a new logo.
North Star Games is also issuing a Channel Restriction Notice (CRN) to all its resellers, announcing that it has designated Amazon.com as a restricted sales channel. Effective today, North Star Games will limit its Amazon distribution to two authorized sellers on the Amazon Third-Party Marketplace. The CRN states that resellers who don't participate in the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program have until February 13th, 2018 to deactivate their listings. Resellers who do participate in the FBA program should sell through any existing inventory by March 9th, 2018 and then stop restocking their FBA listings. North Star Games will work together with its authorized Amazon partners to monitor product listings and remove any unauthorized sellers.
"These two policies will allow our authorized retailers to remain competitive in an ever-changing and dynamic marketplace. We highly value our retail partners and their commitment to providing valuable instore experiences that create memorable moments for their customers and grow the gaming community", states North Star Games Co-President Satish Pillalamarri. "We look forward to helping our partners grow their businesses by providing enhanced services such as game demos and organized tournaments. These partnerships will allow us to develop an even greater number of the exciting and engaging games that our customers love."
• In news not quite as old, in January 2018 The Creativity Hub changed its name to Hub Games, with a new logo to match, to reflect the company's change in focus. In May 2017, The Creativity Hub had sold the Rory's Story Cubes line to Asmodee — you knew that company had to appear at least once in a round-up like this, right? — after which the company shifted its focus "exclusively to the world of tabletop gaming", launching both Blank and Untold: Adventures Await (which makes use of Story Cubes in its gameplay). An excerpt from the press release announcing the change: