‘The Walking Dead: The Prison’ Kickstarter Cancelled; Set for Distribution

While the project had raised around 40% of its $81,100 funding goal it was announced The Walking Dead: The Prison board game Kickstarter has been cancelled. Rather than the reader shedding a tear you should cheer up: the reason behind the cancellation is an agreement the designers have made with Diamond and Alliance to distribute the title.

The Walking Dead: The Prison is a followup to the Z-Man Games’ The Walking Dead: The Board Game. It might be interesting to note the Z-Man TWD title is one of the worst received of the zombie-centric titles based on the franchise and was plagued by production issues which has kept the game in a perpetual state of being out of print. Even with lackluster reviews, the title sold well and having TWD as a licensed IP is very close to having the ability to print money. It’s very possible the creators of The Prison turned to Kickstarter in order to keep the upcoming title on store shelves, and on table tops, rather than on gamers’ wish lists.

The update about the cancellation:

We have some great news: we have, just in the past day, agreed to an exclusive distribution deal with Diamond/Alliance. This is amazing news for the game, because it means we’re going to be able to get the game into every specialty and hobby store in the country, along with international distribution and larger stores. The game will begin to be solicited by Diamond next week. This is, quite simply, everything we had hoped for when we began to develop the game.  

Given that we now have an amazing distribution deal with the perfect distribution partner, we don’t feel comfortable continuing to ask for funding money through Kickstarter. As such, in a short while, we’re going to cancel our campaign for the game, and focus all our energies on getting the game to the distribution center as soon as possible.  

We are tremendously fortunate to have backers like you, though, and we don’t want to disappoint you. We’re proud to say that we are still going to create the Kickstarter exclusives that we’ve revealed (and a few we haven’t) as a thank you for your support. We’re also working on developing a program that will get you the game at the Kickstarter discount.  

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...

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