The French board game company IELLO is cutting ties with their partner IELLO USA. In a report from ICv2 The company “…has decided to rethink the distribution of its products IELLO and LOKI in the United States and in Canada,” it said in its announcement. “Consequently, IELLO, through its legal advisor, terminated the distribution agreement, effective December 31, 2021, which authorized IELLO USA to distribute IELLO products in the United States, ending any collaboration with Mr. Stephan Brissaud, COO of IELLO USA. IELLO reserves the right to communicate at a later date on the reasons which led to these decisions.”
IELLO was started in 2004 by Cedric Barbe and Patrice Boulet as a distributor and eventually got into publishing its own games. Notable board games from IELLO include King of Tokyo, Bunny Kingdoms, and Schotten Totten.
The IELLO USA website has been taken down with an email subscription box to be notified when it’s relaunched. The last post from IELLO USA on Twitter was from October 25 about technical issues with their website.
It’s still unclear what lead to the severing of ties, but it doesn’t appear as if this decision was mutual, especially with the release specifically calling out Stephan Brissaud. He last made the news in 2018 when he was kicked out of Gen Con that year for an altercation with a security guard.
Source: Board Game Quest
