In Other News - Licensing deals, Paris, Pandasaurus releases
Renegade Games Studios announced new products based on their partnership with Hasbro, Inc. Expect roleplaying and deckbuilding games based on G.I. Joe (who have not had a board game since Battleship and Monopoly incarnations in 2009), My Little Pony (who currently only have a collectible card game and themed versions of Hasbro’s mass market games), Transformers (who just recently had their collectible card game from WizKids retire), and more Power Rangers games (a deck-building game has been announced).
Asmodee Entertainment and Artovision have also announced a licensing partnership to produce Asmodee’s properties as a range of multi-dimensional art collectibles. This includes CATAN, Arkham Horror, Twilight Imperium, KeyForge, Android, and Legend of the Five Rings brands which already have extensive high-quality illustrations on which to draw upon. Expect the first shadowbox and desktop art pieces in the Fall of 2020.
CMON and Asmodee have also announced a licensing partnership to bring Twilight Imperium and Android into graphic novel form in 2021. CMON will publish these titles under their newly minted comics arm, Guillotine Press.
The Last of Us: The Board Game will be published by CMON in partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Last of Us is Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed video game set in a post-apocalyptic world where you cannot tell friend from foe and interactions can quickly devolve into a firefight as you desperately fight to survive each day. CMON and Sony previously partnered to produce Bloodborne and God of War. You can read more about the partnership in the CMON announcement.
Paris 1889 is a narrative and horror cooperative game from Sorry We Are French for 3-6 players which lasts 30-60 mins. Its designed by Florian Fay with illustrations by David Sitbon where players are young adults in a small American town at the end of the 1990s where a magical portal is found which transports everyone to 1889 Paris. This is a follow-up to their Greeneville 1989 title and takes places 10 years later.
Pandasaurus Games have announced upcoming releases for October of 2020. Gods Love Dinosaurs is a strategy game of food chain hierarchy, for 2-5 players, designed by Spiel des Jahres-nominee, Kasper Lapp (known for Magic Maze) where small prey subsist off of vegetables or insects, who in turn are eaten by predators, who are then hunted and consumed by dinosaurs. Also expect Ohanami, a competitive drafting game designed by Spiel des Jahres-nominee, Steffen Benndorf (know for The Game and Qwixx), where players attempt to grow the best garden during cherry blossom season. The Game: Quick and Easy, also designed by Steffen Benndorf, is meant to be easier than its predecessor (The Game) which has everyone work as a team to play as many cards as possible on two stacks. Finally, there’s Robots, a 2020 Kinderspiel des Jahres nominee, where 2-6 players work together to figure out what speed means to each other. Robots is designed by Reinhard Staupe.
