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Prolific board game publisher CMON has temporarily frozen all trading stock as of April 1, after issuing a warning in late March that the company's yearly losses could exceed $2 million. Having now missed the deadline for publishing its most recent annual financial report, board game enthusiasts have begun to air concerns over CMON's trading practices.
CMON is the same publisher that brought us the Zombicide board game series, along with Marvel Zombies, Cthulhu: Death May Die, Blood Rage, and the Bloodborne board game. Plenty of gamers consider games on the CMON docket to be among the best board games. But alongside the company's countless board game hits and successful crowdfunding campaigns, it seems there's some internal turmoil going on behind the scenes.
In March, CMON issued a warning around $2 million in projected losses for the previous financial year – a number that would entirely overshadow the company's $1.8 million in expected profits for 2024. It comes alongside news of two new shareholders who decided to withhold a combined 16.66% stake in the company at the start of 2025, which would have amounted to around a $1.39 million boon for the company. With the investors having now backed out of the non-binding agreement, CMON is in the process of seeking legal advice around the sudden cancellation. There are no details cited as to the reason for the investors' hesitation.
The ruckus has not only raised questions about the company's financial standing, but the late financial statement has also put CMON in breach of China's HKEX stock exchange rules. These state that a company trading through it "must publish such results not later than 3 months after the date upon which the financial year ended" (that's December for HKEX traders).
Since the initial forewarning, board game enthusiasts have begun to question the financial health of the company despite CMON's 2023 financial statement (p.36) saying that "The Directors were not aware of any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions which may cast significant doubt upon the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern." In this instance, 'going concern' is a very confusing but actually positive phrase that means the company is not in financial danger.
Taking to the r/boardgames subreddit, users comments on one post about the losses speak harshly of the company's practice of funding previous games with new crowdfunding campaigns, calling it a "quasi-ponzi juggling act."
Come April 1, CMON stock is halted, with CMON itself citing in a the initial warning statement to investors "changes in certain key personnels in the financial department" that have led to understaffing issues. Once again conversations around the company's financial status have begun to twitter through the r/boardgame subreddit, with users comments on one post calling it a "massive red flag." The same user goes on to shred the company further, stating that "You have no business being a public company if you can’t handle this sh**."
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