• Let's start with Matagot, which will release a new version of Fabrice Besson's Giants under the name Rapa Nui, with the game having new art and new components, presumably not skinny cylindrical "logs" that constantly roll off the game board.
• The second edition of Tom Lehmann's Race for the Galaxy is already out in English, and Matagot will release a French version of this new edition in 2020.
• Grail Games released Scott Almes' Boomerang in 2018, and now with Grail
• Now that two large expansions exist for Jacques Bariot and Guillaume Montiage's Kemet — Ta-Seti and Seth — Matagot is working on version 1.5 of the base game's rules to update and streamline everything to get people playing more quickly.
• In an as-yet-unnamed family game, you are a kitten who is going through different scenarios in order to improve your skills. I feel like I need to repeat this so those who need to know about this game don't miss it: You are a kitten who is trying to improve your skills across multiple game scenarios.
• A big box game coming in Matagot's expert line could be described as "Inis in space" and it bears the provisional title "Beyond the Gates". This Christian Martinez design is set thousands of years in the future, with players sometimes fighting, sometimes building foundations, and sometimes activating portals to share knowledge.
• Monster Soup, due out near the end of 2020, will have you groping in a bag for ingredients to complete your soup. I do not recommend eating that soup.
Kolossal Games will start 2020 by delivering on Kickstarters already finished — Papillon, Omen: Heir to the Dunes — and launching new crowdfunding projects along the way, leading off with a late 2019 KS campaign for a game series from Scott Almes: Almanac: The Dragon Road and Almanac: The Crystal Peaks. Here's an overview of how they work:
Ruination is a 2-4 player area control and civilization game set in post-apocalyptic Eurasia. Using an innovative action system, players will gather resources to acquire advantages from the wreckage of the world before, bolster their armies with powerful Exiles, and march across The Wasteland to war. Only the strongest and most canny horde will rule beside the Khan in this new world.
• Grail Games has only two forthcoming titles at the moment, and I've already covered both of them in BGG News posts: Reiner Knizia's Medici: The Dice Game and Tom Lehmann's ChuHan.
I love David Harding's editorial choices and art direction at Grail, so I'm hoping for even more good things down the line...
Update, Nov. 10: I should have written "only two announced forthcoming titles", but alas I didn't. Here's an update on what's coming from Grail Games from a Nov. 2019 newsletter: "Over the next 12 months, Grail Games has more great games planned, including two new additions to the Medici family of games, another brand new Reiner Knizia design, and ChuHan, a 2-player card game from designer Tom Lehmann."
Update, Nov. 14: Grail Games was not purchased by Surfin' Meeple or Charpentier and is still run by David Harding; rather the two companies have a partnership agreement.