In 1989, HeidelBÄR Games was founded under the publishing name Heidelberger Spieleverlag and had its publishing headquarters in Walldürn in Baden-Württemberg. While the publisher was initially known as a small publisher of board and card games, through partnerships with, for example, Fantasy Flight Games and Czech Games Edition, titles such as The Iron Throne, Doom and Codenames were later included in the game publisher's range. In 2015, the publisher began a logistical collaboration with Asmodee. A little later, in 2017, both publishers decided to merge. Founded a year later Asmodee and the publisher, now renamed HeidelBÄR Games, is the first German game studio Asmodee Group. Under Asmodee's leadership, the publisher should remain free in its creative game development.
Fusion should bear fruit from the best of both worlds
Just a year ago, Asmodee announced in a press release (we reported) to look forward to a successful future together and full of anticipation. The special know-how of the Asmodee Group in the areas of marketing and sales should complement each other particularly well with that of HeidelBÄR Games in the areas of creativity and development. Carol Rapp's words were downright euphoric. The managing director of Asmodee Germany saw great potential for the merger of the two publishers.
"We are very pleased that the merger of Asmodee and the original Heidelberger Spieleverlag now has the best of both worlds bearing fruit."
Carol Rapp in Asmodee's press release on the January 2018 merger
But HeidelBÄR Games was no less positive about their future together. Heiko Eller-Bilz, who managed the game studio within the Asmodee Group and who has been responsible for the areas of partnerships and product development at Heidelberger Spieleverlag since 2000, also expressed confidence. It was an honor for him to join the ranks of other well-known game publishers under Asmodee. ?
“It is a great honor for us to be chosen as Asmodee “To put the studio in a row with successful publishers such as Fantasy Flight Games, Days of Wonder, Space Cowboys and Z-Man.”
Heiko Eller-Bilz in Asmodee's press release on the merger in January 2018
Heidelbär Games announces immediate separation
The announcement on the company website of HeidelBÄR Games states that the publisher will no longer be part of the Asmodee Group with immediate effect. The owner of the now independent company, based in Miltenberg, is still the previous studio manager Heiko Eller-Bilz. Furthermore, little will change for the company and the HeidelBÄR publishing staff will be taken over.
What HeidelBÄR Games was known for as an independent company will continue to be the publishing goal. The publisher wants to develop creative family games that are supposed to build a bridge to geek games. Nevertheless, the cooperation with Asmodee will not be completely broken off. The game TAGS, which was published in January 2019, remains with Asmodee.
For us BlueBARS, this step means a return to our roots. As Heidelberger Spieleverlag we have lived the qualities of a small, owner-managed company for years: flexibility, creative chaos, personal responsibility and long-term cooperation are just a few of them.
Excerpt from the announcement by HeidelBÄR Games.
The announcement by HeidelBÄR Games sounds like you want to go back to the roots of a small company that can be creative, a bit chaotic and free in its development and that of its games.
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