CoolStuffInc's founder on how Amazon pushed it out of the online board game market

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Dec 06, 2023

When BoardGameWire reported in September that CoolStuffInc, a major player in online board game retailing for the past ten years, was getting out of the market to focus on CCGs, it always felt like there was more to the story. In this exclusive interview, CoolStuffInc founder Jerry Sunkin talks openly about how he feels Amazon’s monopolistic power was a prime driver of his company’s retreat from the space. Elsewhere, board game news website Dicebreaker is being lined up for a sale by its owner ReedPop, threatening one of the vanishingly few board game journalism outlets whose reporting goes beyond new game announcements and reviews. Our hearts go out to the Dicebreaker team, and we hope that whatever happens, the reporters are safe and get to keep turning out great articles.

“It’s too late for us”: CoolStuffInc founder on how Amazon pushed it out of the online board game market

CoolStuff Inc, one of the world’s largest online board game retailers for more than a decade, made the surprise announcement in September that it was pulling out of the market to focus on the more profitable CCG space of Magic, Pokemon and Lorcana. A week later, the news broke that Amazon was being sued by the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 US states for using “anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power”.

CoolStuffInc founder Jerry Sunkin had a single-word response when he took to Twitter to comment on the news: “Finally”. Wrapped up in that one word was years of growing frustration that despite its size, huge customer base and extensive expertise, CoolStuffInc has been squeezed out of the online board game market by a mammoth player undercutting them at every turn.

Dicebreaker’s owner investigates putting site up for sale alongside video game stablemates

Board game news website Dicebreaker is being lined up for a sale by its owner ReedPop, as the US-based events major investigates getting out of the digital journalism space it entered just five years ago. Dicebreaker was launched in 2019, a year after ReedPop picked up UK-based Gamer Network in an attempt to expand into digital news and video. That deal also saw it take control of EGX, the UK’s biggest games event, and its indie games-focused companion EGX Rezzed.

But the company is now looking to sell on Gamer Network – which also includes websites such as Eurogamer, RockPaperShotgun and GamesIndustry.biz – while holding on to MCM ComicCon, EGX and Popverse, the pop culture news website it launched last year.

‘Restructuring’ has started at Asmodee as owner Embracer Group battles to cut $1.4bn debt pile

Asmodee’s owner Embracer Group has confirmed it has begun “restructuring” at the tabletop gaming giant, as part of a massive cost-cutting programme which has already seen Embracer shed more than 900 jobs. Embracer revealed in June that it was shifting from “heavy-investment mode” to become “a highly cash-flow generative business this year”, putting an end to a years-long acquisition spree by the former video game and mobile gaming specialist which included the €2.75bn takeover of Asmodee in 2021.

Its cuts so far have predominantly hit the group’s PC and Console Games unit, with 15 game projects scrapped and a swathe of studios being shuttered, as well as 5% of Embracer’s total workforce being let go. But Asmodee CFO Müge Bouillon, who is deeply involved in managing the restructuring programme as the project’s finance workstream lead, has now confirmed the restructuring programme has started at the tabletop game business.

Incredible Dream scraps new Kickstarter after just a day, despite reaching almost 90% of target

Incredible Dream, one of the few board game startups to attract millions in venture capital dollars, has scrapped its new Kickstarter project just a day after launch, despite reaching almost 90% of its target amount. Boundless Stride: Into the Denlands picked up support from almost 240 backers following its launch on November 29, quickly raising more than $17,800 of its $20,000 goal. But that wasn’t enough to save the project from being pulled a day later, with the company saying in a Kickstarter update that they were “unlikely to hit our goals for the project”.

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