CMON has announced plans for Night of the Living Dead board games, accessories, and other items, such as figures, coins, and cards. The original 1968 movie is in the public domain but CMON’s products are being produced under license from Living Dead Media and will be approved by the original production company, Image Ten. No release date was mentioned in the announcement, however, the company is labeling Night of the Living Dead “A Zombicide Game.”

Directed by George Romero, Night of the Living Dead is credited with spawning the zombie genre.

CMON has also announced the opening of an office in Los Angeles. The new office, led by Geoff Skinner, will focus on relationships with television, film, and electronic game companies.

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CMON announced this week a deal with Steve Jackson Games to produce board games based on the latter’s Munchkin property. The first title is planned for Fall 2018, inspired by CMON’s adventure game, Arcadia Quest.

Osprey is doing a card game based on characters from the 2000AD comics. The core mechanics for Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth will be derived from the company’s The Lost Expedition. Additional elements will track radiation and psychic abilities. And the game will play in competitive, cooperative, and solo modes.

Following up on its recent release of The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, pop culture company Mondo is planning two more movie-tied titles: Jurassic Park and Fight Club. In the Jurassic Park board game, one person plays InGen, creating dinosaurs and developing the park, one person plays the park visitors, sending individuals around to various attractions, one person plays the velociraptors, sneaking around to kill other players, and one person plays the T-Rex, a single figure stomping everything. The only thing revealed so far regarding Figh Club is that it’ll be a card game.

Cubicle 7’s Call of Cthulhu license from Chaosium will expire at the end of December. The company, however, plans to port Cthulhu Britannica, World War Cthulhu, and The Laundry to new RPG systems.

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It’s only been about a year-and-a-half since Asmodee consolidated operations and abandoned Fantasy Flight Games’ exclusive deal with Alliance Game Distributors (in favor of a portfolio approach with ACD, Alliance, GTS, Southern Hobby, and PHD). Effective this month, though, Asmodee North America back to exclusive with Alliance, claiming the arrangement will benefit hobby retailers.

Alliance Game Distributors is building a dedicated team of Asmodee Sales Specialists who will work directly with retailers to help them grow sales by understanding the retailer’s specific needs and providing in-depth product knowledge of ANA products and services. This sales team will also provide greater visibility into stock availability, allocations, and other retailer initiatives, as well as sending retailer feedback to ANA.

At the same time, Asmodee is restructuring its broader sales policies and assigning all specialty retailers (new or existing) to one of three categories. Flagship Accounts are for those with brick-and-mortar stores that provide in-store gaming space. These will have access to the full range of ANA products, early access to new releases, and benefit from organized play support. Toy and Gift Accounts, for those without in-store gaming space, will be limited to the top-selling, broad-appeal titles and restricted to general release dates. General Accounts are for those with different business models, perhaps such as event sales, game cafes, and primarily online businesses. These will be able to participate in organized play and sell the full catalog but not benefit from early access. All three types of account will henceforth be permitted online sales but also must commit to a minimum advertised price (MAP, of no more than a 20 percent discount off of MSRP).

Coiledspring Games has signed on as exclusive U.K. distribution agent for Iello Games’ full product line and for Games Workshop’s Talisman: The Magical Quest board game.

Ares Games of Italy will be distributing the English-language games of Phalanx (UK) worldwide except for Europe. This includes existing products, such as Germania Magna: Border in Flames and Hunger: The Show, as well as the soon to be republished classic, Hannibal & Hamilcar – Rome vs. Carthage (due November 2017).

CMON is no longer handling U.S. distribution for Ankama Products (Krosmaster board games).

This week marks the formal launch of a distribution arrangement that sees Passport Game Studios carrying the product line of Rule & Make of Australia. These include Skyward: The Airborne City, Entropy: Worlds Collide, Smiths of Winterforge, Robots & Rockets, Tavern Fame, and more. Passport also recently expanded its existing distribution partnership with the Polish game company, Granna, to bring the CV series of board games to Canada.

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Jaipur, Asmodee’s head-to-head, set-collecting card game about trade caravans in India, is now available on mobile (Android, iOS). It can be played against three levels of AI or against another live player online.

CMON has a new companion app for Zombicide: Black Plague. Among other features, the app manages the zombie spawning deck, helps with inventory maintenance, and tracks experience and skill options. It also synchronizes over a network to track all players’ game states.

As announced by Paizo, two digital Pathfinder games are in the works. One, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, is a computer RPG and is being developed by Owlcat Games. In it, players start out as adventurers but are able to claim the lands they explore and, thus, carve out their own kingdoms. The other, Pathfinder Duels, is a digital collectible card game based on the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path and is scheduled for release in September. It’s being developed by 37Games.

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CMON is developing a miniatures board game based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series (that’s the novels, rather than the A Game of Thrones television show). To make that game, CMON is of a fashion borrowing the A Song of Ice & Fire license from Dark Sword Miniatures, which has been producing related minis for some time (in PR terms, they’ve entered a partnership). CMON, though, is working on a complete tabletop game, which the company promises will handle scenarios ranging from small skirmishes to large-scale battles with hundreds of figures.

IDW Games has licensed three early video game titles from Atari: Missile Command, Asteroids, and Centipede. IDW says the line of board games will be “fun, intense and fast-paced.” The first out will be Centipede this fall.

IDW is also publishing a game based on the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie. It’ll be a cooperative adventure game in which players take on different aspects of Colonel Taylor’s personality trying to figure out the history of humanity.

WizKids has renewed its Star Trek license with CBS Consumer products. And with that renewal came several new product announcements. The company is launching two new products for Star Trek: Attack Wing—Card Packs that have just new cards and tokens for existing ships, and Faction Packs that include four ships at reduced cost. WizKids will also be offering unpainted Star Trek minis, an expansion for Star Trek: Frontiers, more Star Trek Tactics ships, and Star Trek characters for HeroClix.

Fragor Games has secured a license from Aardman Animations for a Wallace & Gromit game.

Cubicle 7 is releasing its licenses for the Yggdrasill, Qin, Kuro, and Keltia roleplaying games back to French publisher Le 7eme Cercle. Cubicle 7 said that the extensive work involved in translating the games prevented a reasonable economic return.

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Attending PAX East and want to know who is exhibiting at what tables? We’ve been given the list of exhibitors in the tabletop hall, which currently do not show up in the Guidebook app, the only version of the program and show’s floorplan available.

The tabletop booths will be along the right (north) edge of the space, near the skybridge. From the main Queue Room entrance on up to the Lenovo Legion PC Room, the following companies will have a presence in the tabletop hall:

• Gamewright, Q-Workshop, Asmodee NA
• Compleat Strategist (local game store), Steve Jackson Games
• Battleground Games & Hobbies (local game store), Level Up Dice, Fun to 11, Tectonic Craft Studios
• CMON, Wyrmwood Gaming
• Burning Wheel, Japanime/Global Games Distribution, Greenbriar Games
• Modern Myths NY (“local” game store), Armor Class 10 Shirts
• Pandemonium Games (local game store), Crit Success, Dragoon/Lay Waste Games
• Atlas Games, United States Professional Mahjong League
• Drinking Quest, Aviary Games, SFR
• AdMagic
• Greater Than Games
• Foam Brain Games (“local” game store)

Although the PAX 2017 program book that appears in the Guidebook app doesn’t break down the tabletop hall, PAX’s Tabletop Manager has said that this year a detailed map of the tabletop area will appear in the program.

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CMON is expanding the company’s lineup into more family-friendly games, starting with Banana Bandits ($30 to $35) this summer. With a release in late June or early July, this game will have you as one of several giant apes climbing and fighting over a multi-story building. Move your hanging piece to an area where another is, and fight, knocking the loser away several window spaces. Much like in real life, fleeing fighters drop coins that anyone can pick up and exchange for bananas. Points!

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