After 11 years of publishing some of the most quietly clever small-box games in the hobby, Osprey Games' board and card division is going on the block. Owner Bloomsbury Publishing announced on 13 May that it intends to sell the line as part of what it calls a "strategic refocusing on book publishing," with no new commissions in the meantime.
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Set up your group for freeThe catalogue is the headline. Osprey is the publisher behind Undaunted, the David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin deck-building wargame series that started with WW2 Normandy and grew into one of the genre-defining two-player lines of the last decade. It is also home to Cryptid, the deduction sleeper hit from Hal Duncan and Ruth Veevers, plus Peer Sylvester's The King is Dead, Martin Wallace's London, and the Imperium civilisation deck-builder series. Threaded, the Bargello-needlework eurogame already pre-announced for UKGE, will still get a release, alongside Undaunted 2200: Revolution and Crab Rage. Existing schedules and licences will be honoured.
Osprey Publishing itself, founded in 1969 as a military and historical book imprint, will keep its wargames and RPG divisions. Bloomsbury, valued at close to £500m on the stock market, posted sales of £361m last year and has been restructuring across the wider group since around 55 redundancies were announced last month.
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Start organising for freeDesigner Peer Sylvester told reporters the decision did not seem to be about sales, calling it a question of corporate priorities rather than performance. Other Osprey designers, including Ellie Dix, have publicly expressed their sadness. No buyer has been named, and there is no public timeline.
In the short term, Osprey will still be at UK Games Expo from 29-31 May, demoing Threaded, Flip Pick Towers and Rattlesnake on stand 3A-448. Worth a visit, given that the line you are demoing this year may have a different name on the box by next year. Sort out who in your group is going to UKGE before passes sell out.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Tabletop Sentinel | Osprey Games
