Asmodee Acquires Board Game Arena

BGA was charging users to play before this deal, right? The press release indicates no change in pricing. And it sounds like designers and publishers weren't getting paid before this deal, just like they won't be getting paid now. So what is the specific complaint here? They didn't mind lack of payment by BGA but they are suddenly unhappy that the lack of payment will continue under Asmodee?

Some people are willing to let people play their games if it's a small mom and pop service without royalties that probably wasn't in a great position to pay you. But wouldn't feel so charitable if it's a giant company who can *obviously* pay. Personal thing. I'd probably feel that way. But yeah, from an "economic rationality" angle it probably shouldn't matter.

It's $24 a year for anyone interested in getting a few extra features, audio and video chatting and access to some new or hot games early. But you only need one person to have it per game. So it generates a revenue.

I'm more concerned that a lot of designers will pull their stuff or (and fairly enough) request a few bucks from the monster investment firm that just bought their stuff.

A lot of volunteer hours went into building it, but that's all part and parcel. The owners are entitled to sell their creation to whomever they want as long as a government entity or two agrees.

It's just that it's Asmodee's party, again, and we're along for the ride.

I hate it when my hobby becomes popular.

I'm in the process of setting up an interview for inclusion on the next cast.

Oh, awesome.

I'm concerned that Asmodee will ruin what has quickly become a source of great enjoyment for me. When has a buyout ever helped the users?

In any case, I'm trying to remain optimistic. It's possible that this will allow some games to appear on BGA that otherwise wouldn't: Catan and Ticket to Ride spring to mind.

I'm unconcerned about a price increase -- $2US/month is ridiculously cheap. I'd happily pay $10US/month and still call it a bargain.

I think a price increase is good for the industry. That's what people always tell me when Asmodee buys something, so it must be true.

Greg Aleknevicus wrote: I'm concerned that Asmodee will ruin what has quickly become a source of great enjoyment for me. When has a buyout ever helped the users?

In any case, I'm trying to remain optimistic. It's possible that this will allow some games to appear on BGA that otherwise wouldn't: Catan and Ticket to Ride spring to mind.

I'm unconcerned about a price increase -- $2US/month is ridiculously cheap. I'd happily pay $10US/month and still call it a bargain.

According to an article on Dicebreaker, Skull and Splendor will be launching in a couple of weeks on BGA. Catan, TtR and Pandemic are slated to be brought on as well.

Might turn out ok. I'd expect we should see an even larger increase in user base if/when the really big Asmodee games get on BGA. That... sort of helps designers/devs of lesser known games, I think? BGA sort of encourages you to play a variety of games to earn "BGA gold" so might lead to some more exposure for lesser known titles. Totally get why designers wouldn't want to give away royalty-free access to their IP though.

Makes sense for the two owners of BGA to do this from a continuity perspective. They probably don't want to run the site forever but would like it to continue to exist when its time for them to move on to something else. Putting a business into corporate ownership often seems like the best move there.

If I had to predict, in 4-5 months we'll see some changes into how Asmodee can monetize this outside of just current premium memberships. Maybe that's just raising the price, but could be other things... ads, multiple tiers of membership, making the free memberhsip access suck, who knows... what if every physical copy of a game came with 3 months of BGA premium membership or something?

That would be wonderful if that’s how this all shakes out, but Asmodee’s history of how it treats its acquisitions doesn’t give me much hope. Asmodee, at least in the example of Fantasy Flight, hasn’t shown a desire to increase profit through investment but through cost reductions and consolidations. Its biggest moves have been eliminating departments, shifting product lines to different companies and regular mass layoffs every six months or so.

And what new games have we seen in that time? Arkham Horror Final Hour? Star Wars Outer Rim? Marvel Champions? I don’t think any of these are bad games, but they’re safe plays. Fantasy Flight used to fart three games of this ambition out a year. The In-Flight Report used to be something to look forward to. The last two years have been “That’s it?” It’s telling that the last interesting things Fantasy Flight did, namely Keyforge and Discover Lands Unknown were the last games Christian Petersen shepherded.

Why should we expect anything different with Board Game Arena? We should probably be happy if they only keep the same number of games available with the same quality of play while jacking up memberships to $10 a month, but somehow the site will be demonstrably worse despite a presumably larger staff and bigger budget.

Pour one out for BGA.

So totally unrelated but...what are people’s favorite implementations of Asmodee-owned games on Tabletop Simulator?? Kinda feel like downloading some, sooner than later...

The marvel champions TTS mod is really good

BGA is the only one of these services I’ll even fool with- we play stuff on it as backup for when RPG meet ups fall through.

I hope they keep that thing where it sounds like someone is beating your door with a hammer, demanding to play St. Petersburg.

the_jake_1973 wrote: According to an article on Dicebreaker, Skull and Splendor will be launching in a couple of weeks on BGA. Catan, TtR and Pandemic are slated to be brought on as well.

The article has been updated:

"Asmodee has told Dicebreaker that Pandemic, Catan and Ticket to Ride are not currently confirmed for release on Board Game Arena, with their mention in the original press release said to instead be "an example of the types of games Asmodee can bring to the platform."

www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/114436/as...-game-arena-analysis

Here's a lot more analysis with actual insight into the kind of weird business model BGA runs under.