Essen 2008 Report – Boardgames Everywhere!

Thanks to Ward Batty from icv2 for this report.

Editor and writer Ward Batty, who has over 30 years experience in retail management and publishing, sent us this report from the recently completed game fair in Essen, Germany.

Every October, over 150,000 board game enthusiasts fill a space about nine times that of Gen Con to check out the hundreds of new games that debut at the show each year.  This year’s fair is against a backdrop of continuing softening sales in the German boardgame market, which would have fallen even more last year except that Germans discovered Texas Hold ‘em Poker and everyone bought poker chips, which are included in the game sales totals.

A famous designer that I’ll decline to name once told me the reason board games sell so well in Germany is “there is nothing else to do.”  Stores close early; few businesses are open on Sunday.  However, it appears that the same forces that have reduced the time many families in America spend together, such as the XBox, or cell phones, are now having the same effect in Germany and families, especially with older kids, simply don’t play boardgames the way the once did.

Still, for an American gamer, it is amazing to attend an event where publishers have the resources to erect massive displays and hire dozens of people to teach games.  Just to see boardgaming as a mainstream activity is a delight.  Nothing is more attractive than a cute girl with big bags of games in each hand.

The most common theme for games this year seemed to be race games.  A number of them should appear on store shelves throughout the year.  My favorite was Fast Flowing Forest Fellers, a new Friedemann Friese game race game about log-rolling that could be compared to a simplified Robo Rally, which will be available from RGG.

Read more