Machi Koro publisher Pandasaurus has been robbed, 300 board games taken
Stolen copies already on Ebay.
The studio responsible for tabletop titles such as Machi Koro and Dinosaur Island, Pandasaurus Games, has been robbed.
In an Instagram post made earlier today, Pandasaurus revealed that it had gotten a call from one of its warehouses reporting that it had been broken into overnight by “professional thieves”. Once the thieves had gained access, they took a batch of board games that were due to arrive to Kickstarter backers - these titles included 200 copies of The Loop and 100 copies of the Kickstarter version of Dinosaur World.
The stolen copies have already been spotted listed on websites such as Ebay, after being passed onto an online seller, with the police having “apparently already identified the thieves”. Pandasaurus has warned players away from buying copies of The Loop or the Kickstarter version of Dinosaur World that they might find online, as neither upcoming games have been released to retail and should not have arrived at backers’ houses yet - “please know this is a stolen product”.
In the Instagram post, Pandasaurus goes on to assure backers that this “shouldn’t affect anyone’s pledges,” as the studio reportedly has enough copies of both titles to cover those stolen. The studio then goes on to ask for backers’ “patience and understanding” as Pandasaurus and the police continue investigating the recent theft.
Dinosaur World is the latest entry in a series of board games that enable players to construct their very own Jurassic Park style theme park, with Dinosaur Island and Duelosaur Island - the two-player board game - being the series’ previous entries. In Dinosaur World, players compete to create the most compelling amusement park possible using both their creatures and other attractions, whilst trying to avoid any potential dino-based disasters from occurring. The Kickstarter campaign for Dinosaur World - and its roll-and-write spin-off title Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n’ Write - was successfully funded in October 2020.
The Loop is a co-op board game that challenges players to collectively defeat Dr Faux, a time-travelling mastermind who has created various clones of himself and littered them across space and time. Working together, players must gather the artifacts they need in order to sabotage the doctor’s maniacal machine and save the world from his evil schemes. The game is currently not available to buyers in China, Europe, Japan and Korea.
Besides Machi Koro, the Dinosaur Island series and The Loop, Pandasaurus is known for releasing the dexterity game Sonora, Umbra Via - a board game about building a pathway using tiles - and the dice-rolling board game Brew. Pandasaurus’ most recently announced title is called That Time You Killed Me, a narrative-driven board game about two time-travellers who are attempting to survive their opponent’s various traps.
According to Pandasaurus, some backers have successfully received their games - such as copies of Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n’ Write - with shipping continuing whilst the studio is at Gen Con this coming weekend.