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.