By Mark Seavy

Brand licensing’s role in the board game business was very much up for debate as publishers and developers gathered for Gen Con Indy 2024 in Indianapolis, IN.

To be sure The Op and Goliath Games, which recently acquired Funko’s game business, are well established licensees in business. For the most part at Gen Con – Ravensburger was there promoting its Disney-based Lorcana, as were Hasbro and Mattel –was home to smaller developers and publishers of role playing (RPG) and other games, the majority of which are financed through crowdfunding sources like Kickstarter and GameFound.

That much was clear as board game developer Cmon completed a GameFound campaign on July 31 that raised from 14,040 backers,  $2.2 million of the $4.2 million being sought to fund development of DC Super Heros United. And that was after it raised from 20,886 backers $2.3 million of the $4.7 million it was seeking for Marvel United in a campaign that ended in February 2023. In contrast, Cmon picked up from 1,232 backers $340 of $339,743 needed for the non-licensed Degenesis: Clan Wars as part of a GameFound effort that ended June 7.

“Many of the developers and some publishers we work with don’t always know how to do licensing,” a board game industry executive said. “They would love to talk to the big [licensor] companies but either they are scared or don’t know what to say and are not sure what the minimum guarantees or royalties should be.”

That’s despite many of RPG games having a solid fan base. A large portion of those fans converged on Gen Con, which attracted a record crowd of 71,000 during its four-day run.

Publisher The Arcane Library, for example, raised $1.4 million on Kickstarter for its non-licensed Shadowdark RPG game. Stonemeier Games also showed non-licensed Wyrmspan, a game designed for one to five players and to attract fans of Wingspan by featuring dragons instead of birds. Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast also used Gen Con and the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)to release a new 2024 Players Handbook and feature a popup museum for the game, which first debuted at Gen Con in 1974. And then there was Brotherwise Games’ release this week of the author Brandon Sanderson’s first tabletop RPG The Stormlight Roleplaying Game.

Yet despite some breakthroughs by smaller companies, sales remain largely through distributors Asmodee and Flat River Group.

“Many of these games have potential for licensing and many of these smaller companies want the success of Lorcana and other licensed games, but they don’t know who to go to,” said Trent Fairbrother, VP of Brand Authenticity at omnichannel retail strategy company Brand3P, who attended Gen Con. “If these large licensors really knew this world and what is waiting here there is a heck of an opportunity. The larger licensors now know that it is more than just the big board game suppliers.”

The large board game suppliers also will have a new member in their ranks as Goliath Games absorbs Funko’s games business. The purchase also could signal the start of consolidation within a board games business that still has many independent publishers and developers.

“I think Goliath’s acquisition is going to be a large learning opportunity for the industry,” Fairbrother said. “No one knows if it will work out for them. But if there are some spikes in sales other companies might think there are a lot of small games companies that could be acquired.”