While gamers can, as always, look forward to lots of new games, games that span the gamut of styles, there is unrest beneath the surface.  The publishers are fighting over market share and are trying to drive each other off the shelves with their new product lines.

The types of releases are quite straightforward.  In addition to well-known hypes like Sudoku, of which even more releases are planed, TV and film tie-ins and especially the upcoming World Cup are being heavily promoted.  These kinds of games guarantee profits without having to spend much on advertising.  So, there are lots of games – from lots of publishers – about soccer, with or without FIFA licensing.  Amigo has Bohnkick (naturally related to Bohnanza), Schimdt Spiele presents Soccer Ligretto, and Ravensburger has, in addition to about 50 soccer-related puzzles, Wurfel-Kick.  Hasbro is releasing Monopoly World Cup edition.

And yet, at the same time, some publishers are expanding their lines.  Reiner Knizia is to be mentioned twice here: His game Tal der Abenteuer (Valley of Adventure) is the first in a new line of designer games from market giant Hasbro, a line which is to grow each year, and he’s also lending his talents to an entire new line of games from Upper Deck, typically known more for collectible card games.

Kosmos is starting a new line of puzzles and is also trying to gain market share with low-cost games.  Last year, the publisher recorded a double-digit percentage increase in profits.  A similar story for Ravensburger: With new life in the thinking game line Think! and a veritable avalanche of puzzles, the publisher is fighting for increased profits.  They’re also trying their hand at laboratory kits under the name Science-X.

Another publisher with similar goals is Hutter Trade, the independent distributor related to Huch & Friends as well as Zoch.  With a line-up of games from new publishers, there’s both quality and quantity.  Newly added is, for example, Mind the Move, which published the hits Oltre Mare and Il Principe.  They’ve also added crime puzzles and gift items (such as wine bottle holders) to their line-up.

This direction in publishing unfortunately means less for the ‘Spielfreaks’, those gamers looking for deeper, more strategic fare.  It’s hard to gauge these things at the fair, but there didn’t seem to be much for them here.  Maybe Mykerinos by Ystari or Bison from Phalanx Games – as well as Tempus, of course, which is supposed to finally be available soon (after lengthy delays).  Thurn und Taxis, much like Abacus’ California and alea’s Um Ru(h)m un Ehre, would seem lighter to the ‘hardcore gamer’ crowd.  But one game or another might still turn out to be a winner for this group in the coming months.

One particularly promising game is Queen’s Seerauber, where the payouts can sometimes exceed the booty taken.  The gems of this year’s releases might be found in the gambling games, of which several are being released this year.

The reason for all the bluffing games might be the Poker trend, which is responsible for lots of programming on the sports channels.  Here, Hasbro is offering Poker Duel, Yahtzee Dice Poker, and Feeling Lucky, three nicely-done games that draw heavily from traditional Poker.  Amigo has two poker-style games too, Cincinnati and Um Krone und Kragen, although they’re more in the vein of family games.  Upper Deck has Yo!, a card game that’s also based on poker.  It’s worth mentioning here that several Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour players have jumped ship to play poker – so the dream of making a living playing cards can be reality for some.

The simple but easily explained games, which appeal to a broad range of consumers, include Just 4 Fun from Kosmos as well as Terra Nova by Winning Moves.  Interesting releases for the party game crowd include Was’n by Ravensburger as well as Picture Quiz by Jumbo.  Noris is releasing what is probably the only Mozart-themed game of the year, Das Mozart Quiz.  Interestingly, Piatnik, the Austrian publisher, chose not to release a game with this theme, since there’s apparently already a glut of Mozart-themed items in that country.

With Children’s games, there are promising releases from nearly all publishers.  Haba is right at the forefront, of course, with a whole line of new releases.  These include The Black Pirate, which is closely related to Akaba, as well as Zoff im Huhnerhof.  Selecta is releasing Giro Galoppo, a tactical and very promising game.  Drei Magier, with Funny Fishing, is showing off an unusual take on the labyrinth puzzle, in which the beginning and ending threads must be found.  Amigo and Ravensburger are keeping to tried-and-true styles (card games and 3D games, respectively), Kosmos is releasing new game licenses designed by Kai Haferkamp: Das Sams and Weiss du eigentlich, wie lieb ich dich habe (Do you know how much I love you).  Hasbro is bringing the children’s game of the year 1994 back: Looping Louie.  Also very interesting is Los Mampfos by Zoch and the traveling game Komm by Piatnik, which is CD-supported and is supposed to teach children the sound of foreign languages.

Of course, the current line-ups must also be taken care of.  Many publishers are releasing games to support what has become a whole family of games.  Here, Hasbro of course reigns supreme, releasing DVD versions of Monopoly and Pirates of the Caribbean as well as new versions of Clue and Monopoly.  Hans im Gluck is releasing Carcassonne: The Tower, Queen is releasing the fourth Alhambra expansion, Zoch is expansing Niagara with The River Spirits and Tilsit is releasing a five and six player expansion to Himalaya.  Asmodee is doing an expansion to Werewolf called Full Moon, which can expand the game for up to 100 players.  Kosmos is celebrating an anniversary with a special edition of the Settlers card game, which includes all the expansions and looks very nice.  Blue Moon is being expanded with a board game: Blue Moon City.  Jumbo and Cranium are expanding the line-up by three: Hullabaloo, Family Fun and Bumparena.  In addition, Jumbo is releasing Stratego Junior and Stratego: Marvel Heroes.  Days of Wonder is doing another Ticker to Ride game: the Marklin edition.

Lots of Fantasy games too that expand existing lines: Games Workshop is adding more figures for Lord of the Rings, Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.  Fantasy Productions is adding another game to the Black Eye-based games, although it’s a standalone game and not much like an RPG.  Pegasus Games is releasing Igels 2 as well as lots more Munchkin games.

Three board games received Toy Innovation awards: Equilibrio, from Huch and Friends, won for Dexterity, Die Nacht der Magier for Teambuilding, and FIFA Scene It World Cup Edition for Trend.

The games won’t all make it onto store shelves right away – many of the games weren’t ready yet.  Some publishers weren’t there, but did mention some plans for the future.  Kris Burm will be releasing Gipf Set 3 at Essen 2006, The Game Master is doing an expansion for De Ontembare Stad.  Apparently they’ve also found a German partner who will be going some or all of their games.

So, the next few months will decide how strong the Spring market is.  Behind the scenes the publishers will fight to keep the books and games segment the strongest in the industry.  Whether it’s enough to emphasize hypes, trends and franchises remains to be seen.

Thanks so much for translating this, Patrick, as it provides some very interesting insights.  It also appears to have a few scoops.  For example, I don’t think I’d heard anything about the two Knizia games mentioned (Hasbro’s Tal der Abenteuer and the Upper Deck game); does anyone know anything about either of these?  I imagine they’re both pretty light, but I’m still curious.

There’s one item in the article I wanted to comment on.  The trend of Poker-style games is obvious, but one of the games mentioned, Amigo’s Um Krone und Kragen, designed by Tom Lehmann, probably should not be included in this category.  I’ve played the original prototype (before it was submitted to Amigo) and unless it has changed drastically during development, it has nothing to do with Poker.  I’d describe it instead as a Snowball game (to use the excellent term that Valerie coined in her article last week), in which players ally themselves with a variety of individuals who each give them additional abilities and allow them to reach their goal.  The individuals here are comparable to the buildings in Puerto Rico or San Juan.  The difference is the main mechanic is dice rolling.  So if you wanted to compare the game to a classic design, it would be Yahtzee, not Poker, but there’s much more skill and decision making in Krone than in Yahtzee.  I thought the original worked very well and I’m hopeful that the Amigo version will be even better.

Thanks for the clarification, Larry.  The original author did use the adjective ‘poker-style’ to describe the games, but then I don’t think there’s much chance to actually sit down and play many of the games being displayed.

Yeah, the Hasbro and UD bits surprised me too.  The German pages (which Rick has linked to) have some pictures of both.

pk

Thanks for the wonderful article translation, Patrick!  It’s great to get a deeper look at Nuremburg with articles like this (or at least, when you can read them).

I have a weird feeling that a lot of the traditionally deep gamer’s games this year are reprints or redevelopments.  For the deep games I look forward this year, I am most interested in Shogun, and that’s a redevelopment of Wallenstein.  Reprints and redeveloped games are not a bad thing at all; it was the only way many people could realistically play Reef Encounter, for one thing.  But I miss seeing something new; if the next Alea game seems to be a light pirate game, it seems to be an indicator of a bad year for new deep games.

I still like seeing all the games out there, from the medium-weight to the light-weight, and just about every redevelopment and reprint.  I just miss seeing things like New England, or Puerto Rico, or Goa, appear with a splash.  Perhaps we’ve simply been spoiled by a coincidence of such games appearing all at once; really deep games would take a while to truly develop well.