Tag Archives: asmodee

Stone Blade Entertainment announces The Lord of the Rings: Ascension

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Stone Blade Entertainment has announced The Lord of the Rings: Ascension, a new tabletop experience set in
J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary world of Middle-earth, developed in partnership with asmodee and
Middle-earth Enterprises.

Designed for fans of both immersive storytelling and strategic gameplay, The Lord of the Rings: Ascension invites players to step into a dynamic narrative shaped by their choices. Rather than simply retelling familiar tales, the game offers a branching experience where each decision carries weight, and no two journeys unfold the same way. Each of Tolkien’s three legendary volumes comes to life as its own standalone deckbuilding experience.

Set against the rich backdrop of Middle-earth, players will navigate evolving challenges, forge alliances, and confront the consequences of their actions across a living world inspired by Tolkien’s writings. Built from the ground up to reflect the tone, tension, and depth of the source material, The Lord of the Rings: Ascension aims to deliver an experience that feels authentically rooted in the legendarium.

Ascension has defined the deckbuilding genre, winning awards, building a passionate community, and setting the standard for strategic card game design. Now, with The Lord of the Rings: Ascension, Ascension is entering the world of licensed games.

The game is currently in development and will launch via a Gamefound campaign later this year. Additional details, including gameplay reveals, components, and campaign information, will be
shared in the coming weeks and months.

Fans can follow updates and be among the first to learn more by visiting the project on Gamefound and joining the growing community ahead of launch.

Gen Con 2024: Discover the “phygital TCG” game, Altered

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Altered

Altered is a groundbreaking game of exploration, positivity, and strategy for players of all ages from Equinox. Founded by Régis Bonnessée (creator of Dixit and Mysterium) and part of the Asmodee collective, Altered uses innovative “phygital” technology to blend the tactile enjoyment of traditional card games with the immersive experience of digital gameplay. 

Altered will have a significant presence at Gen Con 2024 with the following activities:

  • Exhibit Booth: Featuring four demo tables (4 players each) where attendees can experience the game and receive promo cards.
  • Organized Play Booth: Accommodating 64 players, hosting tournaments and demos throughout the event.
  • Community Engagement: The Community Manager (CM) will be roaming around Gen Con in cosplay, giving away 100 exclusive playmats through a social media treasure hunt. Follow the channels for clues, find the CM, answer a question, and win a playmat!

You can find them in the Exhibit Hall, Booth #1109.

Altered launched a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign that raised $6.7 million, capturing the community’s imagination with its unique gameplay. Unlike traditional card games, Altered focuses on exploration, positivity, and strategy. The game’s “phygital” technology seamlessly integrates physical cards with digital counterparts, revolutionizing the TCG space by allowing players to unlock exclusive content, track progress, and engage in online competition.

Attendees at Gen Con will have the unique opportunity to demo the game and explore its innovative features ahead of its official release on September 13, 2024. Engage with the creative vision and transformative gameplay that has already captivated a global audience!

Embracer Buys Dark Horse After Mega Deal to Buy Asmodee

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Dark Horse Comics

Embracer Group is on a buying spree to end the year. Just lack week, the video game behemoth announced the intended acquisition of Asmodee, the board game publisher, for €2.75 billion (about $3.1 billion in US dollars). Now, the conglomerate is purchasing Dark Horse Media, making it the tenth operative group of the Embracer group. Dark Horse founder and CEO Mike Richardson will continue to lead the company with existing management.

According to the announcement, Dark Horse “owns or controls” more than 300 intellectual properties. It strengthens Embracer Group’s content development in comic publishing and film and tv production. Asmodee in the recent year has expanded its non-game publishing (books, art books) and also recently announced moves to bring its properties to film and television.

In the acquisition, Embracer Group gains Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse Entertainment (film and television), and Things from Another World (retail with three locations and e-commerce). In the Asmodee acquisition, it was revealed that Asmodee owned two stores including the popular Miniature Market which it bought in 2021. The purchase of Asmodee and Dark Horse quickly expands Embracer’s retail operations with both physical and e-commerce options as well as its reach into television and film. The firm is clearly looking at how to expand its existing properties beyond their initial silos of release.

In the announcement, Embracer specifically mentioned the “untapped potential in creating games based on Dark Horse IP”. Embracer Group is the parent company of 86 video game development studios representing over 250 IPs in over 40 countries. Studios include THQ Nordic, Gearbox Entertainment, and others with properties such as Saints Row, Dead Island, Darksiders, Timesplitters, World War Z, and Borderlands.

Darksiders and Dead Island have seen comics based on them released by Dark Horse while Borderlands has had comic tie-ins published by IDW Publishing.

Between these two purchases, Embracer quickly becomes an IP powerhouse with the abilitiy to release concepts across video games, tabletop games, comics, movies, and television.

The amount of the purchase has not been revealed “due to commercial reasons” but Embracer will purchase 80 percent of the shares of Dark Horse from a seller based in Hong Kong and the remaining 20 percent of the shares from CEO Mike Richardson and COO Neil Hankerson. The transaction is expected to be completed in early 2022.

Spot It! Goes from Tables to Comics

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Asmodee Entertainment has announced an agreement with publisher Ablaze to produce a graphic novel based on Spot It!, the award-winning visual perception game from Asmodee’s Zygomatic games studio.

Spot It! (known as Dobble outside North America) is a gaming phenomenon and worldwide bestseller in the family games market.

Characters from the game, including Dobbly, the famous anthropomorphic hand which features in the game’s logo, will appear in an original adventure story, written by Derek Fridolfs and illustrated by Gabriele Bagnoli.

The Spot It! graphic novel will be available to retailers through Diamond Comics and Diamond Book Distributors and is due to launch in Summer 2022, with further details expected soon.

Spot It!

404 Editions and Aconyte Partner for UbiSoft Video Game Novels in France

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Aconyte

Aconyte, the fiction imprint of global games group Asmodee, has announced it has licensed its range of all-action novels set in the worlds of Ubisoft’s video games for French translation by noted pop culture publishing house 404 Editions, an imprint of Editis.

Beginning in early Summer of 2022, 404 Editions will kick off an ongoing range of novels from across some of Ubisoft’s most popular game worlds, including Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, Tom Clancy’s The Division and Splinter Cell, and more. These series will explore never-before-seen parts of these deeply imaginative settings to create a variety of original stories, some revealing the hidden histories of fan-favorite characters, and opening up whole new possibilities for action and adventure.

The originals are being published in English by Asmodee Entertainment’s Aconyte Books imprint, with whom 404 Editions already has a multi-year partnership for several ranges of novels based on both Asmodee board games, and characters from across the Marvel universe.

Aconyte Books and Cross Cult Announce German Translations of Marvel Books

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Aconyte Books, the novels imprint of global games publisher Asmodee, have announced the latest fruits of their ongoing relationship with noted German publishing house Cross Cult. In spring 2021, a new strand will be launched in Germany to publish translated editions of Aconyte’s range of adventure novels set in the Marvel Universe.

Brand new stories of characters famous from the Marvel comics line, from the X-Men to the Heroes of Asgard, will be published starting April 2021, with a new title appearing every two months.

The Ludwigsburg-based publisher Cross Cult has been publishing comics since 2001. At the beginning of 2008, prose novels joined the publishing program, with manga joining the ranks in 2018. As a specialist for tie-in comics and novels based on the world-famous movie, TV, and game universes, Cross Cult is the natural choice to produce the novels for Marvel’s popular Super Heroes. The publishers are already planning a line of German translations of Aconyte’s range of novels set in Asmodee’s most popular and fantastical game worlds, as announced at the end of 2020.

Asmodee Digital games are coming to SquareOne

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Asmodee has announced that it has licensed its Asmodee Digital games to SquareOne. SquareOne is a new gaming system that blends board games and video games into one device.

SquareOne launched on Kickstarter in November and went on to eventually raise $219,755 from 380 backers.

It’s currently available on Indiegogo where it has raised an additional $237,773 from 404 backers. Expected to ship in December 2021, you can get the SquareOne Asmodee Edition for $649.

CMON’s Comic Imprint Guillotine Press Brings Asmodee’s Twilight Imperium and Android to Graphic Novels in 2021

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CMON

CMON LTD and Asmodee Entertainment have entered into a licensing partnership to bring two of the most famous boardgame universes of all time to the pages of comics! The best-selling game worlds of Twilight Imperium and Android are slated to make their graphic novel debut in 2021. The deal is the latest example of Asmodee Entertainment’s continued expansion into licensed publishing opportunities. For CMON, this deal secures the first-ever licenses for their newly minted comics arm, Guillotine Press.

CMON has seen some of their games turned into comics through IDW Publishing and recently Kickstarted three graphic novels “CMON Comics – Vol. 1.” That project raised $501,632 from 12,261 backers and featured not just print comics but expansions for CMON’s popular tabletop board games. It’s slated to be delivered in February 2021.

As with CMON’s first set of graphic novels, these new books will be created by veteran writers and artists, who will bring their immense talents to the projects. Scheduled to be launched on Kickstarter in 2021, the books will be paired with tie-in game components designed to delight long-time fans of both franchises.

Asmodee

Twilight Imperium, the genre-defining 4x strategy game immersing players into interstellar conquest and diplomacy for over 20 years, is set against the backdrop of a sweeping, epic space opera filled with iconic races, locations, ships, and characters. Twilight Imperium was first released in 1997 and has seen four editions released with the latest in 2017. The game was designed by Christian T. Petersen with art by Bill Heagy.

Meanwhile, the cyber-noir setting of Android explores a future where megacorporations compete across the globe and cyber-espionage is just business as usual whilst criminal gangs fight for dominance in the overcrowded streets below gleaming corporate starscrapers. Android has been explored through board games, card games, and roleplaying games for over a decade. Android was released in 2008 by designers Daniel Clark and Kevin Wilson. It features art by Julie Dillon, Henning Ludvigsen, Stefan Morrell, Aaron Panagos, Didier Poli, and Zoe Robinson. 2012 saw the release of the popular card game Android Netrunner by Richard Garfield and Lukas Litzsinger which featured art by Bruno Balixa, Ralph Beisner Del Borovic, Adam S. Doyle, Amelie Hutt, Thomas Lishman, Henning Ludvigsen, Ed Mattinian, Dallas Mehlhoff, Adam Schumpert, Mark Anthony Taduran, and Matt Zeilinger. That release saw numerous expansions well into 2018.

Both the Twilight Imperium and the Android game lines are products of Asmodee’s Fantasy Flight Games studio.

Aconyte Books Announces New Marvel Stories

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Marvel logo

Aconyte Books is a book publishing imprint for Asmodee Entertainment, a company mostly known for board games. While they’ve been releasing books based on their board games, the publisher is also dipping its feet into the world of Marvel.

Releasing in the Fall of 2020, they’ve teased four new titles launching from the publisher.

The titles are:

  • Domino: Strays
  • Legends of Asgard: The Head of Mimir
  • Dr. Doom: The Harrowing of Doom
  • Legends of Asgard: The Sword of Sutur

Asmodee releases numerous games based on Marvel properties through their various game imprints.

We’ll have more information as it becomes available.

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