Asmodee Acquires Lookout Games and Mayfair Games | Hacker News Reader

Asmodee Acquires Lookout Games and Mayfair Games

boardgamegeek.com

43 pointsmudil12 comments

As a German somewhat familiar with German board game companies these two articles (polygon and board game geek) were really confusing because they focus on some stuff that happened only in the last years and it's mostly about games I didn't in any way associate with the name Mayfair I had neevr heard of.

So if I got this half way correctly, the actual news is that really "Mayfair Games" (which is only a publisher, not a creator?) is shutting down, but the articles solely focus on licensed board games that originated somewhere else.

Timeline according to wikipedia:

1981 Mayfair Games founded

1995 Franck-Kosmos publishes Settlers of Catan in Europe

1996 Mayfair Games publishes Settlers of Catan in NA

1997 Mayfair Games shuts down

1997 new company: Ironwind, Inc

2001 succeeded by Mayfair Games, Inc (again)

2013 Mayfair Games publishes the games by Lookout Games in NA

2018 Mayfair Games(Inc?) is bought by Asmodee (French company, or maybe their NA branch?)

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfair_Games

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmod%C3%A9e_%C3%89ditions

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookout_Games

The article is also about Asmodee purchasing Lookout Games. They bypassed purchasing Mayfair, which was publishing games created by Lookout Game's oversees, and purchased Lookout instead.

Yes, but in an article lamenting the downfall of a 35 year old business entity I'd expect a little more than "oh btw it was resold several times and let's talk about the recent stuff they really didn't invent themselves".

More harping on the original polygon article. :P

Board Game Today also has more information: https://boardgametoday.com/months-speculation-mayfair-games-...

Official "shutting down" notice on the Mayfair Games Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1015588883974585...

As a kid I used to love board games. It made for fun, engaging family time. Now, we have a closet full of board games but they rarely get used. On demand digital entertainment and gaming has taken over.

To each their own. My friend group and I, we play board games together multiple times a week.

So do my roommates and I.

I didn't appreciate board games with the family until I was much older though.

Why did they shut down?

When all the games Mayfair are publishing are made by Lookout, having them as two separate names doesn't make a lot of sense, especially in today's globally connected world where you don't want your games being under a different name in Germany and the US. Mayfair made their name republishing a German game, and maybe that's a business that no longer makes sense as a separate proposition.

I'm surprised they don't purchase it just for the brand. As an American board gamer, I instantly notice games that have the Mayfair logo and expect them to be the type of games I like.

Can anyone change the url? Boardgame Geek has a much meatier article with actual details:

https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/73620/asmodee-acquires-lo...

Ok, we changed to that from https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/9/16996882/mayfair-games-look.... Thanks!

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