Since 2012, Randolph has developed one of the world’s largest game pub networks, bringing together more than 40,000 players per week. This provides the group with an excellent avenue for listening to the board game public and staying in touch with the gaming community, which should bolster Hachette Livre’s strategy of exploring every corner of the casual game market.
As part of this deal, Hachette Livre will acquire a stake in the Randolph Group, which will become a co-shareholder in the Canadian game studio Le Scorpion Masqué, which Hachette Livre acquired in late 2020.
This investment will allow Hachette Livre, through its Hachette Boardgames division, to expand its presence in Canada by partnering with a Canadian board game group with significant creative, distribution and promotional capabilities.
The Randolph Group, a long-time distributor for Gigamic in Canada, will now be responsible for promoting Hachette Boardgames titles in Canada and, eventually, throughout North America.
The Scorpion Masqué team, still led by its founder Christian Lemay, will soon join the Randolph teams in new offices. Both studios will maintain the creative personality and authenticity that has made them successful. The Scorpion Masqué games will be distributed in Canada exclusively by Randolph starting from 1 September 2021.
“This deal will allow Randolph to promote the Quebec game industry throughout the contemporary board gaming space. Hachette Boardgames is proving to be an ideal partner to achieve our ambitions in a fast-growing industry,” says Sébastien Nadeau, Managing Director of the Randolph Group.
“The Randolph Group is a company with a unique model, recognised expertise and strong growth, with which we share similar values, ambitions and a vision for the future of board games,”says Isabelle Jeuge-Maynart, CEO of Hachette Boardgames.
Fabrice Bakhouche, Deputy CEO of Hachette Livre, said: “We want to continue and accelerate Hachette Livre’s development in board gaming in Europe and North America. That is why we’ve formed this partnership with the Randolph Group, which I welcome wholeheartedly.”