Earlier today, February 16, 2018, during the 2018 Investor Update at Toy Fair, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast announced a new game: Axis & Allies and Zombies.
The image showing the new Axis & Allies game (alongside a new Transformers TCG) came from the 2018 Investor Toy Fair Brand Initiatives slide deck on page 31.
When visiting the 2018 Investor Update at Toy Fair web page there is a link to a webcast of the entire presentation. The announcement happens at approximately 1 hour 11 minutes:
And we’re also innovating in board games with our Avalon Hill brand. Axis & Allies and Zombies takes the beloved World War II strategy classic Axis & Allies and adds a fun alternate history twist. With streamlined game play, curve-balls, like chainsaw tanks and zombie mind control rays, and a zany storyline strategy fans everywhere will enjoy.
– Chris Cocks, President and CEO of Wizards of the Coast.
This is certainly exciting news! However, it’s not the first time we’ve heard of this. On December 27, 2017 Rolling Stone had an article, Chasing Innovation Inside the Company Behind D&D, Magic and Avalon Hill, where Chris Cocks said:
We might throw some fun variants in there as well. I want to to make new games. I want to make variants of existing games. What about Axis and Allies and Zombies?
Special thanks to @zooooma from the forums for the Rolling Stone article and to Nick Harvey, on Facebook, for sharing the image, the image that prompted us to dig deeper.
Other publications, if you choose to write about this story after reading this, we would really appreciate a link back to this post. Thanks.
