Ken Burnside on how screwed Asmodee is

[GothmogIV]

Free League makes beautiful things, and Cubicle Seven did some great work with LotR as well. Hopefully FL can keep publishing.

In my dream world, Goodman Games gets Conan (which, I believe, goes into the public sphere pretty soon?)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In my dream world, Goodman Games gets Conan (which, I believe, goes into the public sphere pretty soon?

Boy, if that's true, there's going to be a mad rush in the OSR sphere to publish Conan stuff.

 

[môrgondír]

If I were Embracer, I would have at least wanted the 'Saudi investor arrangement' committed to paper, rather than merely a spoken deal.

But the arts & entertainment and leisure industries don't have the options for shuffling money around that the tech industry enjoys, q.v. the current 'nVidia / AMD <-> Intel <-> US government' shell game.

 

[aramis erak]

Also, the odd use of '1200 million' instead of '1.2 billion'. Either way, should have looked it up first. Good catch.

The UK, until 1974, used to use 1 Billion as 1 million million, ie, 1e12, while the US has always used 1000 million (1e9) as a billion. Many older news agencies avoid using Billion as part of their style manuals because of the issue of "which billion"... tho' most of the anglophone world is using it as 1e9 now as far as I can tell.

 

[aramis erak]

Boy, if that's true, there's going to be a mad rush in the OSR sphere to publish Conan stuff.

That it's not yet public domain hasn't stopped many. Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea being the key exemplar, but not the only OSR game in the space, using the setting.

The trademark, however, is still current, so if you want the name Conan on the cover, you still will need a license from the current owners of the Trademarks.

As for when: current is 95 after first publication or 70 past life of author, longer of. 1932 magazine appearance means mid 2027 for the early character, but the trademark makes using those legally interesting. the novels will be a decade more... assuming no copyright reforms in either direction.

It's like Steamboat Willie: you can copy the story and reuse the animation, but Disney still owns the Trademark "Steamboat Willie" and so you'll need to change the title if using it publicly...

 

[Cergorach]

@kronovan Don't blame Asmodee, blame the people 'selling' (merging) FFG in the first place: the original FFG owners. One can not buy what someone else does not want to sell...

I have seen no announcements that Games Workshop lost the LotR license for their miniatures game, it's still for sale on their website...

Asmodee has been buying up properties (and responsibilities) from CMON (which is doing far worse then Asmodee).

In 2024 Asmodee made a big loss, but in 2025 they made a profit. And they got their loans refinanced. And put a big dent in their debts.

Q1

Embracer Group announces its intention to transform into three listed companies, with

asmodee becoming a stand-alone listed entity on Nasdaq Stockholm.
> Asmodee secures financing agreement amounting to EUR 900 million.

Fantasy Flight Games, an asmodee studio, introduces the next adventure in the STAR

WARS™: Unlimited Trading Card Game series: the Shadows of the Galaxy set.
Q2

Thomas Kœgler is appointed the new CEO of asmodee.
The Board of Directors (the "Board") of asmodee is announced, with Lars Wingefors as Chair.
The LEGO Group and asmodee announce partnership to create LEGO® board games.

Q3

Asmodee attends Essen SPIEL 2024, the world’s largest tabletop game convention.
Asmodee hosts a Capital Markets Day in Stockholm.

> Issuance of EUR 940 million of senior secured notes, replacing the EUR 900 million bridge
facility.

Successful launch of the board game The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth™.

Q4
> EUR 400 million capital injection received from Embracer Group and repayment of EUR 300
million of gross debt relating to outstanding bonds.

Asmodee publishes prospectus and its class B shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
Strong contribution from the Pokémon Trading Card Game and One Piece.

Source:

https://storage.mfn.se/ccfd5169-73e4-4553-b7c0-86066e7c89e6/eng-asmodee-group-annual-report-2024-2025.pdf

Looking at their stock prices, they are 16% higher then when they were released in February this year (they had a serious dip and a peak in the mean time). The Market Cap of Asmodee is almost $3 billion, while Hasbro's Market Cap is almost $11 billion.

The doom and gloom in the OP post did not come to pass.

 

[aramis erak]

The doom and gloom in the OP post did not come to pass.

No, but from a fan perspective, something far worse: both Star Wars and L5R are not getting good support. Couple that to the US distributor going bankrupt... and tariffs... and getting the one new L5R book is worse than getting teeth pulled, especially given that most of my local dentists have 6 month backlogs and are cheaping out on the local anaesthetic...
My FLGS can't get it.

 

[jolt]

No, but from a fan perspective, something far worse: both Star Wars and L5R are not getting good support. Couple that to the US distributor going bankrupt... and tariffs... and getting the one new L5R book is worse than getting teeth pulled, especially given that most of my local dentists have 6 month backlogs and are cheaping out on the local anaesthetic...
My FLGS can't get it.

Unfortunately, that's exactly it. Stock prices are irrelevant if you aren't an investor. Investors aren't the ones putting out a product - unfortunately, neither is Asmodee. You've got one of the largest IP's in existence (Star Wars) and they're doing virtually nothing with it because they're too busy managing their debt, and making product would be adding too many costs which makes investors unhappy.