Tag Archives: flat river group

Gen Con 2025: Industry Veterans Depart Flat River Group to Launch a New Distribution Company collaborating with ACD Distribution

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Luma Imports

Flat River Group has announced the departure of Jules Vautour, Colin Young, and Danni Loe from the company. The trio of industry veterans have recently launched a new distribution company in collaboration with ACD Distribution owners Bob Maher and Danny Procell.

This new venture, reviving the Luma Imports brand, will operate under the ACD umbrella, providing publishers an alternate on-ramp into US hobby games distribution. The sales and marketing services that Vautour, Young, and Loe offered publishers at FRG will continue, collaborating with FRG for support on ecommerce channels, to ensure success for current partners.

In addition to domestic operations, Luma Imports will promote and distribute games internationally, providing the same high level of service, marketing, and support that publishers have come to expect. Its mission remains consistent with the work previously undertaken at Flat River Group: empowering publishers, expanding access, and fueling success in the tabletop industry.

As Director of Luma, Vautour will lead business development, scouting new partnership opportunities and services to offer publishers. Young will operate in tandem, handling global distributor relationships and liaising with FRG for ecommerce support. Loe will lead the marketing team for ACD as a whole, including established programs such as Meeple Monthly and ACD Expo, in addition to direct-to-consumer efforts through Luma Imports.

Additionally, Synapses Games, the Canadian board game publisher acquired by Flat River Group alongside Luma Imports in 2022, was acquired by ACD Distribution. Founded by Carl Brière, the Synapses catalog is recognized internationally for its impactful artwork, balance between quality and price, and curated experiences. In 2024, they released a new edition of Yokohama (previously Tasty Minstrel Games) with revitalized artwork and components. 2025 will see the release of Yokohama Duel, among other original designs from the team.

Both companies will be present at Gen Con 2025 in Indianapolis, IN, represented at the Luma Imports booth #3039. Further details about the Luma Imports structure, Synapses operations, and publisher partnerships will be shared in the coming weeks.

James Ernest and Crab Fragment have Regained Ownership of Cheapass Games

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James Ernest and Crab Fragment Labs have announced that they have regained total ownership of Cheapass Games. More than two years ago, Crab Fragment issued a cryptic “Cheapass is coming home” newsletter when this change seemed imminent. That turned out to be a false alarm, as the offer was made by someone whose job no longer included making such offers.

But now at last, Flat River Group have signed off on a rescission of the licensing contract, which means all Cheapass IP is now squarely back under Ernest and Crab Fragment Labs’ control.

With their permission, they are already been hosting old PDFs and posting a few updated decks at Crab Fragment, mostly made around the time when they thought the change was coming. But this time it’s for real, and it’s huge for us.

Crab Fragment Labs was already bristling with new games, having created more than fifty new titles since 2019. Now they have tripled its inventory, and they’re rearranging their workload around the updated list.

Cheapass Games has always been dismayed with the cost of board games, and they plan to make a large chunk of the old catalog available for free. Not just the “original” PDF versions, as they have now at Cheapassic Park, but also all-new PDFs featuring old-style presentation with updated rules.

We’ll put the latest versions of our favorite Cheapass card games at DriveThruCards. Games like Lord of the Fries, Give Me The Brain, Button Men, the Spy Game, and more. There’s even have a few unreleased expansions, from back when they were still in charge.

Work is still being done in how exactly to integrate James Ernest’s old brands with his new ones, redesigning the web presence as they work on migrating trademark registrations and URLs.

This mailing list has always been for fans of Cheapass Games and Crab Fragment Labs, so not much changes here. It is expected that Cheapass Games will be the main publishing imprint, while Crab Fragment Labs still represents the design studio. There’s also additional brands to manage including Hip Pocket Games and James Ernest Games.

They’ll be looking for new publishers for their most popular games.