Asmodee To Purchase Catan From Mayfair Games

It would seem 2016 is starting out with a bang for board gamers. In the last two years, Asmodee Editions has made waves with numerous company acquisitions in the board game world, including notable Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight Games. That trend appears to being continuing with news coming out today that Asmodee has attained the rights to all English-langauge Catan products from Mayfair Games.

This includes the entire library of English-based Catan titles as well as the overseeing of the major annual Catan-centric events previously run by Mayfair. The shakeup will likely cause some restructuring behind the scenes at the company who has been synonymous with Catan for years, but details of what that may entail are vague. In the meantime, it appears Mayfair in will be attempting to fill that monolithic gap in their library by diversifying and expanding into other new titles, including attaining the rights to several Martin Wallace games.

The full press release is below the break.

As of today, Asmodee North America has acquired the license for the English language publishing and sales of Catan™ from Mayfair Games, Inc..  From this, Catan Studio, Inc. has formed and becomes the newest creative unit in the Asmodee group. Mayfair Games will continue to do business as an independent company publishing both Mayfair and Lookout Games products.

Mayfair Games (MGI) will assist Catan Studio, Inc. and Asmodee North America in the promotion of the Catan brand including but not limited to the continued coordination of the 2016 Catan tournament schedule, Catan Day 2016 and the 2016 Catan World Championship.

MGI carries a strong and skilled team moving into the new year. Its staff includes Larry Roznai, who will continue as President and take on the role of CEO previously held by Pete Fenlon, Alex Yeager will take on an expanded position as VP of Acquisition & Development, taking on responsibilities previously held by S. Coleman Charlton. Daniel Decker, as the new VP of Sales, and Julie Yeager, as Director of Marketing, will manage department responsibilities previously held by Robert T. Carty, Jr..  Loren Roznai will serve as MGI’s Executive VP. Jim Miles becomes MGI’s Director of Event Management.

MGI continues to retain a controlling interest in Lookout GmbH and Mayfair GmbH, providing a wide range of games worldwide, and distribution to the European marketplace. These efforts will be expanded with a new focus on multi-language and international products.

MGI is also pleased to announce the acquisition of several Martin Wallace games as permanent additions to the Mayfair game library.  Those titles include Steam™, Aeroplanes™, Automobile™, Test of Fire™ and Clash of Wills™.

Moving forward, all of MGI’s distributor and retailer terms will remain the same.  MGI will also be continuing its exclusive agreement with Alliance for all sales in the USA to the hobby market and with Esdevium for the UK market. MGI will be reevaluating and making some adjustments to its distribution strategy in Canada.

The new team at Mayfair Games, Inc. is excited about the possibilities ahead, and as always, our focus will continue to be to offer games of the highest quality to our faithful and ever-growing fan base.

 

About Mayfair Games, Inc.

Mayfair Games is a U.S. based Illinois company, incorporated in 1981 and is an international publisher of board and card games suitable for families and hobbyists. Mayfair Games has over 100 game titles in print including many long-running series of games such as Empire Builder™ and Family Business™, along with modern bestsellers such as Nuns on the Run™ and Lords of Vegas™.