Blood Bound and A La Carte publisher reborn as Asmodee’s first German studio

Heidelberger Spieleverlag, the German games publisher absorbed by Asmodee early last year, is making a return as the mega-firm’s first development studio based in the European country.

Heidelberger Spieleverlag was founded way back in 1989 and made its debut with 1992’s Neolithibum, going on to pick up several awards nods with its future releases, including a Spiel des Jahres nomination in 2009 for A La Carte and a Spiel des Jahres Recommended nod for vampiric card game Blood Bound in 2014.

The company was merged with Asmodee Germany upon its acquisition in 2017, but has now been reborn as Heidelbär Games, a development studio headed up by Heidelberger Spieleverlag veteran Heiko Eller-Bilz that will focus on creating brand new games for release worldwide rather than just publishing and distributing titles locally. It also holds the rights to Heidelberger Spieleverlag's past catalogue of games.

“For us it is a great honor to take a place among the other successful Asmodee studios like Fantasy Flight Games, Days of Wonder, Space Cowboys and Z-Man,” said Eller-Bilz.

“As a studio we want to focus on games that build a bridge between family games and hobby games. On games that have that special something.”

Heidelbär is said to be currently developing its first games, with no further details given.