The smash hit board game Pandemic has had a successful cooperative tourney scene for 5 years now. Z-Man Games has posted up a little bit about how they got there, along with some interesting information about future Pandemic games and where they'll fall into the tourney scene, plus a little peek at games coming with the Pandemic System designation.

From the post:

With all of that in mind, I’m excited to announce that we’re defining a new category of Pandemic games. Going forward, games whose foundations are rooted in Pandemic’s gameplay will be known as Pandemic System games. We want players to know that the engine under the hood is based on Matt Leacock’s award-winning co-op mechanics, while the setting—be it historical or fantastical—allows us to adapt gameplay to create a more nuanced, thematic experience.

Pandemic System games will not be limited edition, nor will they be tied to the Survival World Championship. This does a few things. First, it means these games aren’t one-and-done affairs. Second, this eases deadline constraints to give Matt and my team ample dev time to make the absolute best game possible. Third, this allows us a great deal of freedom to explore all sorts of novel, obscure locations, or even fictional realms. In fact, you already know the first Pandemic System game: Reign of Cthulhu. Reprints of Reign of Cthulhu will feature a nifty button in the corner of the box to illustrate this