Christian T. Petersen is stepping down as the CEO of Asmodee North America at the end of 2018. Petersen founded Fantasy Flight Games, the company responsible for the likes of the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game, Twilight Imperium, the Game of Thrones Board Game, and Arkham Horror.

Petersen, 46, founded Fantasy Flight Games in 1995 with the game Twilight Imperium and was its CEO until FFG’s merger with Asmodee in 2014, at which time he became CEO of Asmodee North America.

In a statement issued by Asmodee, he said:  “After nearly twenty years with FFG and four years with Asmodee, I’ve seen our market go through tremendous change and amazing growth. Table top games have been accepted into the fabric of society and represented in pop culture more positively than anyone could have hoped for when I joined the industry. I feel fortunate to have experienced this phenomenon first-hand, and to have been part of such an incredible journey.”

This is of particular interest to fans of Twilight Imperium, which has very much been Petersen’s project. The game is set during the collapse of a galactic empire, where various races via for control over the galaxy. It’s considered a modern classic and the setting has not yet been fully exploited by FFG, with only one spin-off game (Rex) and a non-canonical (and mostly forgotten) RPG.