Alea Moves from Ravensburger to Heidelberger

The next time a new title appears from alea—Spring 2008, for those who are curious, with a difficulty rating of 2 out of 10—the blue Ravensburger triangle will have vanished from the box. German game distributor Heidelberger purchased alea from Ravensburger in August 2007, according to alea editor Stefan Brück.

Updated, Dec. 22: Please ignore the final sentence above. I misunderstood Stefan in the answers he sent to my questions. Ravensburger still owns alea, and Heidelberger is now the exclusive distributor of alea titles. Apologies, Stefan!

As Fairplay reported in early December 2007, with fewer than 5,000 copies of an alea game in print, they were often overlooked by general retailers in favor of Ravensburger releases with more widespread shelf appeal. This led to the odd result of Heidelberger selling more copies of alea titles than Ravensburger itself did directly, mostly because Heidelberger sells to specialty game stores instead of mainstream shops.

Brück says that the licensing agreements with other companies, such as Rio Grande Games and Filosofia, remain in place. Asked if any changes will be made to the editorial direction of alea or the types of games it releases, Brück emphatically answered, “No!”

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