Mayfair Games was an American publisher of

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, card, and roleplaying games that also

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Euro-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical compon ...

s to publish them in English. The company licensed worldwide English-language publishing rights to '' The Settlers of Catan'' series between 1996 and 2016. On February 9, 2018 they announced they sold their remaining IP right to Asmodee North America.

History

Mayfair Games was founded in 1981 by Darwin Bromley in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

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. The company was created to publish ''Empire Builder'', a railroad game designed by Bromley and Bill Fawcett. In 1982, Mayfair Games expanded its focus to include '' Role Aids'', a line of

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

supplements. In 1993, Mayfair was sued by TSR, Inc., who argued that '' Role Aids'' violated their 1984 trademark agreement, being advertised as compatible with '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''. The court found that some of the line violated the trademark, but the line as a whole did not violate the agreement, and Mayfair continued publishing the line until the rights were bought by TSR. In 1996, Mayfair Games became the publisher of '' The Settlers of Catan'' in the US. The company shut down for financial reasons in 1997 but was subsequently bailed out by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE), who purchased most of their assets and restarted operations as Ironwind, Inc. This new company operates publicly under the Mayfair Games trademark. Pete Fenlon became the CEO of Mayfair Games in 2007 to oversee a major reorganization with a refocusing on core brands, most importantly the '' Catan'' family of games. In 2013, Mayfair reported selling more than 750,000 Catan-related products. In January 2016, Mayfair transferred all publishing, commercial, and brand rights for all English-language '' Catan'' products to Catan Studio, a newly created subsidiary of the Asmodee Group. Former CEO Pete Fenlon left Mayfair Games to become the CEO of the new company. Larry Roznai was the last CEO of Mayfair games. He joined the company in 1999 as a

board member A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

, president, and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

. On February 9, 2018, Mayfair announced it had sold all of its assets to the North American branch of Asmodée Éditions, and would be shutting down.

Notable games

This list includes games published by Mayfair and games licensed by Mayfair from other publishers. *'' 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons'' and other 18XX games *'' Agricola'' *'' Bang!'' *'' The Settlers of Catan'' and other ''Catan'' games *'' Caverna'' *'' Cosmic Encounter'' *'' Discworld: Ankh-Morpork'' *'' Encounters'' *'' Empire Builder'' games *'' Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King'' *'' Patchwork'' *'' Role Aids'' *'' Saboteur'' *'' Sim City: The Card Game'' *''

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...

'' *''

Tigris and Euphrates ''Tigris and Euphrates'' (german: Euphrat und Tigris) is a tabletop eurogame designed by Reiner Knizia and first published in 1997 by Hans im Glück. Before its publication, it was highly anticipated by German gamers hearing rumors of a " ...

'' *'' Underground''

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.mayfairgames.com
Mayfair Games
listing at

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Board game publishing companies Role-playing game publishing companies Companies based in Skokie, Illinois

History

Notable games

See also

References

External links