CMON Faces Make-or-Break Moment as It Warns of "Prolonged Structural Downturn" - TGN

CMON has issued a stark warning about its future, telling investors its core business is stuck in a “prolonged structural downturn” and still burning through more cash than it brings in. The tabletop crowdfunding giant is now racing to raise up to $17.5m from outside investors.

The warning landed alongside CMON’s H1 financial report, and it caps off a brutal 18 months for one of the biggest names in crowdfunded board games.

Parts of this article is based on info from BoardGameWire.

A Company Half Its Former Size

CMON has spent the past year and a half trying to stop the bleeding. The publisher has:

Cut its workforce in half
Sold off major IP including Zombicide, Blood Rage, and Cthulhu: Death May Die
Shut down its Singapore office
Halted new crowdfunding campaigns

Those moves have helped — but not enough to fix the underlying problem.

Losses Shrinking, But Cash Still Draining

The good news: CMON’s losses are shrinking fast.

The company posted a loss of just over $2m in the first half of 2026, compared to nearly $7m during the same stretch last year. Revenue also crept up more than 7% year-on-year, hitting $3.68m. Selling and distribution costs were cut by more than half, and administrative expenses dropped from $4.37m to $2.37m.

The bad news: it’s still not enough to keep the lights on without outside help.

CMON’s cash reserves have been in freefall. They sat at $3.9m at the end of 2022, fell to $2.1m by the end of 2024, and slipped to just over $900,000 by June 2025. In early August, the company revealed it had roughly $368,000 on hand — less than a month’s worth of operating expenses.

The Backer Problem: $14m in Undelivered Games

A huge chunk of CMON’s financial pressure comes down to games that backers have already paid for but haven’t received.

Eight crowdfunded titles remain undelivered, representing $14m raised from backers. The two biggest are **DC Super Heroes United** (over $4.4m raised) and DCeased (over $2.5m). Both were originally due last year, but have been delayed repeatedly and are now slated for Q1 2027.

CMON hasn’t completed fulfillment on a crowdfunding project since Zombicide: White Death in mid-2025. It has managed to ship some pre-orders — Cthulhu: Dark Providence, Marvel United: Witching Hour, and Dune: Desert War all went out in the first half of this year — but four more pre-order titles remain in limbo, including the Assassin’s Creed Role Playing Game.

The $17.5m Gamble

To stay afloat, CMON is leaning on a massive rights issue designed to raise up to HK$150.5m (about $19m). The plan lets existing shareholders buy three new shares for every one they already own.

There’s just one problem: shareholders barely took the bait. Only 7.76% of the new shares were claimed by the August deadline, leaving CMON scrambling to find more than $17.5m from other investors — a figure approaching 2.5-times the company’s entire valuation from its last share sale in February.

If the money comes through, here’s how CMON plans to spend it:

40% — Day-to-day operations for roughly a year, including staff, royalties, shipping, and distribution
20% — Paying down debts, including $2.46m owed to a company director and $385,000 in unsecured employee advances
25% — Expansion into existing and new markets, with a focus on Europe, Japan, and the Philippines
15% — Potential acquisitions in digital gaming

The final result of the rights issue is due September 15.

A Digital Pivot — With a Catch

That 15% digital acquisition budget is notable, especially since CMON just walked away from a planned $2.1m investment in NFT game maker Blissful Link. That deal would have valued Blissful Link at over $95m — despite the company posting a loss of about $197,000 in 2024 on revenues of just over $408,000.

CMON says it’s now hunting for one to three businesses, mostly in Asia-Pacific, valued between $1.3m and $2.5m each, to help build digital adaptations and companion apps. The publisher insists physical tabletop games remain its core business and that digital is meant to complement, not replace, them.

Where the Money Comes From Now

The report also lays bare just how dramatically CMON’s geographic revenue has shifted.

North America generated over $8.6m in the first half of 2021 — 57% of the company’s roughly $15.1m revenue at the time. By the first half of 2026, North and South America combined brought in just $642,000.

Europe has collapsed similarly, falling from about $4.5m to $982,000 over the same period.

Asia is now CMON’s largest market by a wide margin, generating over $2m and accounting for about 55% of total revenue — up from less than 10% in 2021. That’s not because Asia is growing, though. Revenue there is down roughly 37% since 2022. It’s just fallen far less than everywhere else.

What’s Next for Crowdfunding?

CMON said back in March that it intended to resume crowdfunding in the second half of 2026. Its latest report doesn’t repeat that promise. Instead, the company says new titles will be developed and launched “selectively” based on market conditions, available cash, and project readiness.

For a publisher built on the crowdfunding model, that’s a notable shift in tone — and a sign that CMON’s road back to stability is still a long one.