Slitherine acquires Blood Bowl publishing rights, keeping the series alive after Nacon's collapse

Slitherine has picked up the publishing rights to the Blood Bowl videogame series following Nacon's insolvency filing in February. The deal keeps the franchise alive and clears the path for a previously announced update to Blood Bowl 3.

Cyanide, the developer behind the series, had already announced plans to overhaul Blood Bowl 3 to align it with the tabletop game's latest rules refresh and rerelease it under the name Warhammer Blood Bowl — a plan that stalled when Nacon went under. That project now appears back on track. Slitherine's director of publishing Marco Minoli said the studio has "enormous respect for what Cyanide has built over the years" and is "excited to continue working closely with the team to support and grow the series together with its passionate community." Cyanide CEO Patrick Pligersdorffer called it "a perfect match," citing Slitherine's track record publishing high-quality strategy games.

Slitherine is a well-established home for niche strategy titles — its catalogue includes the Panzer Corps series and Warhammer 40,000 games like Battlesector and Gladius, so Blood Bowl fits squarely in its wheelhouse. The series itself has a devoted tabletop following, but Blood Bowl 3 launched in a rough state in 2023: bugs, aggressive microtransactions, and a live-service structure that frustrated players. Even after patches addressed some of the worst issues, the menus remain clunky and a significant chunk of the playerbase has drifted back to Blood Bowl 2 for a cleaner experience.

Nacon's collapse also claimed Greedfall developer Spiders, making the Blood Bowl rescue feel like one of the few bright spots from that fallout. Whether the Warhammer Blood Bowl rerelease can win back lapsed players will depend heavily on how much Cyanide and Slitherine are willing to fix — not just update.