German publisher Feuerland Spiele have regained the English and French rights for their games, including popular titles Terra Mystica, A Feast for Odin and Gaia Project, from Z-Man Games, a member of the Asmodee Group.
Asmodee North America will continue to distribute A Feast for Odin, Fields of Arle, and Lowlands, but Terra Mystica and Gaia Project will be distributed by Capstone Games.
Feuerland (pronounced fäu·er) was founded in 2012 by Frank Heeren and Uwe Rosenberg. The company have worked with Z-Man since their initial launch of Terra Mystica.
Clay Ross, who founded Ohio-based Capstone Games in 2015, thinks the games will fit perfectly into their line. Capstone has been known for releasing complex games, but have also expanded their range recently with the Simply Complex brand.
Feuerland publishes two types of games, their black label games are more complex, while green label games have simpler rules.
“The philosophies and the business practices are very similar among our companies,” Ross said. “I’m always looking to grow our line with other lines that match.”
This isn’t the first time the two companies have worked together. Capstone initially worked in 2018 to help increase the awareness of the Feuerland brand with the releases of Fuji and Magnastorm.
In 2019, the two released Crystal Palace, and this March they announced they would publish New York Zoo from designer Uwe Rosenberg.
Ross thinks this early success helped secure the licences. “There was a good relationship and a lot of trust, so it just made sense,” he said.
Ross said it also helped that Capstone have a physical warehouse in Ohio, and is not exclusive with one distributor. He said that gives them a lot of control over their inventory.
Capstone hope to have new editions available for fourth quarter. They are planning to provide continuous publication of the games and will focus on having the games in stock.
“I think they are games that every gamer that wants to take it to the next level should have,” Ross said.
Ross said the agreement will be less bureaucratic than a traditional licence agreement. The companies will be working together for whatever is best for the games. He sees this as a long-term strategy.
Other than the holiday release, Ross didn’t share any future plans for Terra Mystica or Gaia Project. He said Capstone is just focused on getting the games ready for fourth quarter.
“These are foundation games. I just want to make sure we hit these ones out of the park,” he said.
Tabletop Wire reached out to Z-Man and Feuerland, but neither responded in time for this report. Z-Man Games did release a press statement about the returning of the licences.