Asmodee has bought Time's Up! outright, ending a 21-year licensing arrangement and folding the celebrity-guessing party game into its Zygomatic social games studio. The deal, announced on 7 May 2026, hands the French giant full control of one of the longest-running party games still on shelves.
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Set up your group for freeIf you've never played, Time's Up! is the granddaddy of escalating-clue games. Designed by Peter Sarrett and first published by Florida studio R&R Games in 1999, it's a team game where you describe famous names from a card pile across three rounds: full descriptions first, then single words, then mime only. It's the kind of game that turns dinner parties into shouting matches and has aged almost suspiciously well across nearly three decades.
Asmodee has been licensing Time's Up! since 2005, so this is less a takeover and more a tidying up of the paperwork. The bigger picture is what Asmodee is doing with social games right now. The acquisition follows the company's €180m purchase of ATM Gaming in March, signalling a serious pivot toward party play after years of leaning on heavier strategy fare.
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Start organising for freeZygomatic studio head Alexandre Alonso called it "a unique brand with enduring appeal across generations" and confirmed plans for a 2027 product line refresh, building on the recently launched Time's Up! Express variant. The English-language market is a particular focus, which suggests UK gamers may see a stronger marketing push and possibly a fresh edition before too long.
For everyone else, the news is mostly reassurance that one of the best party games of the last 30 years is staying in print. If you've been looking for an excuse to dust off a copy and bring it to your next game night, here's one.
Sources: Boardgamewire | The Toy Book | BGG: Time's Up!
