CMON Announce Masters Of The Universe: The Board Game
June 2, 2020 by brennon
Just when we thought that the nostalgia mines couldn't be dug anymore, CMON has stepped into the ring to announce they are working on Masters Of The Universe: The Board Game which is due to come to Kickstarter in 2021.
The new game will take you through iconic settings from the universe of He-Man and Skeletor as you play as these well-known characters. As it's CMON, these characters will be represented with highly-detailed figures which I would assume are going to be a mix of both retro reimaginings and callbacks to the old action figures too.
Mattel seems to be working up to something pretty big for Masters Of The Universe as a whole with a new film getting talked about and love for these characters being reignited by the likes of She-Ra, Princess Of Power.
Masters Of The Universe Board Game Kickstarter Coming 2021
One element of this announcement that was a little odd was this...
"CMON is proud to announce a licensing agreement with Mattel to create and publish Masters of the Universe: The Board Game in North America, South America and throughout Asia."
Does this mean that if you're over here in Europe then you're not going to be able to get your hands on the game they bring to Kickstarter? It would be neat to hear more information about this as I'm sure there are some big fans of Masters Of The Universe here too!
What do you think about the news?
"Mattel seems to be working up to something pretty big for Masters Of The Universe as a whole..."
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Masters of the Universe was fun back in the day, had quite a number of action figures from it.
It’s interesting to see what CMOn does with this IP, I hope it will also be available in Europe
I really like the idea of a well done Miniature laden boardgame with all my favorite characters from back in the 80s.
However, its really just way to early to even wonder about this bit of news. Not even a blip on the radar yet.
Kickstarter. So it will go through the roof, be horribly expensive and shipping to the rest of the world will cost an arm and a leg. Every time I read “CMON new kickstarter” I usually skip past the articles because of the before mentioned reasons…
If they are still in business in 2021 given the last audit report.
Is it that bad?
Share trading was suspended and the auditor raised concerns about the financial viability of the company. CMON released a bland statement implying the auditor didn’t understand their business model.
Usually, the auditor gives the client an opportunity to explain any possible problems the auditor may release to the public. If they can’t, that’s commonly seen as a bad sign, as is being suspended.
Since the KS will be in 2021, CMON has at least half a year to resolve any issues. Should say though, that whatever problems CMON has from the audit could also happen to private companies, just that private companies don’t have audits.
Personally, I think CMON mismanaged its money, at least in the short term. Among other expenses, including marketing, they paid for listing on the stock exchange and for Asmodee to distribute their games. You’ve probably noticed, meanwhile, CMON liquidating their games on MM, which I think suggests that CMON overestimated their retail sales. CMON has something like eight outstanding projects, including the comics. IIRC, Somewhere in the BGG threads, an accountant who looked at their financials said CMON treats their IPs as having a lifespan of six years, which I think is inaccurate.
More info from CPAs and auditors on BGG : https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/285967/ankh-gods-egypt/forums/0
I HAVE THE? to think about this.
Ok. Now you have my attention.
I was about to throw my wallet full square at the screen.
Except I googled “CMON audit report” and it looks like this is a “we need to get our hands on some cash, quickly” campaign. It might be nothing. Or it might be bogged down in delays and legal issues for months if not years.
I did some work for Mattel about six years ago. They don’t mess about with licencing. Interesting that they’re even considering it – or maybe they’re throwing CMON a lifeline?
I bought some (unofficial?) metal minis from etsy a while back – they were great fun to paint and look great with some 3d printed terrain. This could be very interesting. But likely to be very expensive too!
How can a Kickstarter happening in 2021 be called “get some cash quickly”? Seriously I mean, quickly? It’s a project in development with a KS date around a year away. This could mean anything but it has nothing to do with financial troubles or anything.
It MIGHT be an announcement to try and show future plans, thus calming shareholder concern and possibly drum up some new investment.
Highly doubt it. IP that’s famous but not that famous (it’s Masters of the Universe, not Alien, Star Wars, Terminator whatever …), a game you still have to develop (costs money at first), a KS at least a year away with complete unknown outcome, that has nothing to do with getting investors on board. Really, nothing.
> I did some work for Mattel about six years ago. They don’t mess about with licencing. Interesting that they’re even considering it – or maybe they’re throwing CMON a lifeline?
Well, CMON acquired the license for Hanna Barbera’s Wacky Racers and put it out to retail. (And Scooby Doo is coming out, too.) And, of course, CMON has a history of non-kid’s television IP’s. So it’s possible CMON leveraged their Wacky Racers boardgame to convince Mattel to license their He-Man IP (much like how Stronghold games possibly used their Dark Souls boardgame to put out Resident Evil ones). AFAIK, No other hobby game company has a kid’s television IP. And, as everyone says, there’s a nostalgia factor (ie. older audience) for this IP, so some suits at Mattel may be figuring that that’s at least one way to make money from the IP (I didn’t find any He-Man figures sold to kids as non-collectables in a Walmart or Target search).
CMON’s base games sometimes are on sale at half the price of the KS plus shipping, so you can always wait for retail if you don’t want the risk of a KS and don’t care for the inevitable KSE’s. I’d sure like the CMON audit to be resolved by the time the Massive Darkness 2 pledge manager comes out, at least… :/
They may well have leverage – I’m just surprised that Mattel gave them a licence, with any kind of ongoing audit issue going on; when I dealt with them, it had to be indirectly through and agent and both me, my company, my friend’s company (who I worked with on our project) and the toy agent we used all had to submit to massive financial scrutiny.
The Doctor Who licence gets thrown around on just about everything these days – wasn’t there a Dr Who miniatures game recently? Maybe Mattel have relaxed their licencing requirements in recent years. I’d be surprised though.
That CMON tend to dump their games through retail outlets after Kickstarting suggests they’re not really looking at supporting their games long term and are churning through ideas, simply looking for the next Kickstarter (I’m pretty sure I’ve seen their stuff in The Works in the UK?)
Not so much nostalgia as a new animated series is on the way on Netflix in 2021 it is called Masters of the Universe: Revelation. The showrunner is Kevin Smith (yes that Kevin Smith) as is a sequel to the original 1980’s series. The cast list was released earlier in the year here are some of the names.
Chris Wood as He-Man
Mark Hamill as Skeletor
Kevin Conroy – Mer-Man
Diedrich Bader – Trap Jaw
Liam Cunningham – Man-At-Arms
Susan Eisenberg – Sorceress
Sarah Michelle Gellar – Teela
Lena Headey as Evil-Lyn
Phil LaMarr – He-Ro
Justin Long as Roboto
Jason Mews as Stinkor
Griffin Newman as Orko
Alana Oppenheimer as Moss Man
Kevin Michael Richardson as Beast Man
Henry Rollins as Tri-Klops
Stephen Root as Cringe
Alicia Silverstone as Queen Marlena
Harley Quinn-Smith as Ileena
Tiffany Smith as Andra
Cree Summer as Priestess.
Everything old is new again.
Very interested in motu but in the current climate I am very cautious about backing any kickstarters
With CMON behind it its a pass for me. Also wonder why they drop the announcement so far in advance. Desperation?
Maybe, but I think it might be because there is no GenCon for them to make announcements at.
I thought it was SOP for CMON. Other companies do it as well. Expect teaser videos that don’t tell us anything about the game, with image stills and maybe a few seconds of miniature renders. :/
Well this could be good but we need to learn more about this one.
Hm. Weird no Europe. Must be a licensing thing, or some sort of weird deal where Mattel keep the European Distribution and sales rights.