One of the world's biggest board game companies has just done the equivalent of Sega selling Sonic to Nintendo

CMON started as CoolMiniOrNot.com before turning its hand to board game publishing, having an early hit with co-operative miniatures game Zombicide in 2012. A fast-paced dice-chucker, Zombicide was funded by a $781,597 Kickstarter that provided the model for CMON's subsequent releases—many of them Zombicide spin-offs, reskinning it as a western or fantasy or post-apocalyptic, or rebranding it with Marvel superheroes or, more recently, Monty Python's Flying Circus of all the things.

Which is why it's such a surprise to see CMON sell this tentpole of its business. While it's had success with other games (like Cthulhu: Death May Die, a more shotgun-to-the-face spin on Lovecraftian games like Arkham Horror), hearing that CMON has got rid of Zombicide is like hearing that Sega just put Sonic on the auction block.

Recently, fans have complained of crowdfunding rewards being delayed, and the US-China tariffs haven't helped. In April, CMON announced it was putting all future projects on hold and laying off creatives.

Asmodee, the publisher that bought Zombicide, is a European business that already has the rights to popular board games like Catan, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Diplomacy. It's not as well-known for lovingly crafted plastic miniatures as CMON, though since its merger with Fantasy Flight Games it does technically have the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game in its portfolio.

Asmodee used to have a noteworthy digital division, responsible for videogame adaptations like Gloomhaven, Terraforming Mars and Scythe: Digital Edition. As of April, Asmodee Digital renamed itself Twin Sails Interactive and went independent, so whether we'll get a Zombicide game on PC out of this deal is up in the air.