Into The Twilight: Asmodee CEO Steps Down
July 31, 2018 by cassn
Christian T. Petersen, the founder of Fantasy Flight Games and CEO of Asmodee North America, has announced he will be stepping down from the role to focus on "the pursuit of other interests".
Petersen was co-designer on several successful projects during his career, such as A Game of Thrones and Star Wars: Armada. However, arguably his true masterpiece was the highly successful sci-fi strategy game Twilight Imperium, which has recently been released in its fourth edition.
In a statement, Petersen discussed his hope for the future of board games, and reflected on his own time working within the industry;
"After nearly twenty years with FFG and four years with Asmodee, I've seen our market go through tremendous change and amazing growth. Tabletop games have been accepted into the fabric of society and represented in pop-culture more positively than anyone could have hoped for when I joined the industry. I feel fortunate to have experienced this phenomenon first-hand, and to have been part of such an incredible journey."
Indeed, changes within FFG and Asmodee have been apparent. Last year, Petersen launched Fantasy Flight Interactive, a new development studio created to incorporate digital and traditional board games and earlier this month Asmodee released a Fallout teaser with in conjunction with Bethesda.
Whether this will be a digital, board or card game remains to be seen. And with Asmodee soon to be purchased by PAI Partners for €1.2 billion, we are sure to see many more changes in the future as the company expands and evolves.
Petersen will leave at the end of 2018 and, according to the man himself, the games released within the next year will "represent the final game products in which I have played a part". While we can't wait to see what is released during these final months, one thing is for certain - Petersen has built a board games empire which will sorely miss his presence.
What is your favourite memory of a Christian T. Petersen game?
"I've seen our market go through tremendous change and amazing growth..."
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Aslan in space.
‘Anything released after the end of 2018 is not my fault.’
Peterson was the first person to read ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’ and approach GRR Martin asking for a license to the books. FFG was on record as selling more copies of the book than even B&N until just a few years ago ( they sent a copy of the book and a starter set of cards to every book/ comic/ game store in the US to launch GoT ccg v1.0). He saw things in the industry that other missed and many great games and great resources. I will miss you Chris
Truth.
BUT FFG never really had serious plans for the CCG, my wife and I (and our LGS) pushed them into getting the OP and forum…in fact my awesome wife CREATED the first tournament rules and forum. 🙂
Good luck to him. A good time to get out with a nice nest egg and get back to designing games rather than running part of the Asmodee behemoth. It may be that we look back on this as the golden age, before the money men start to squeeze the hobby dry.