Convention Report: Essen 2007: Spiel Wrap-Up

By W. Eric Martin
November 10, 2007

I surveyed a few publishers that attended Spiel ‘07 to get their reactions to the show and to see whether they had any news to report. Let’s start with the company and game that everyone is talking about:

Lookout Games

Uwe Rosenberg’s Agricola placed second on the Fairplay magazine list of top 10 rated games as voted on by Spiel ‘07 attendees, but the large amounts of German text on the 300+ cards had lots of people asking: When’s the English edition appearing?

The answer: Dunno. Lookout’s Hanno Girke has said that Z-Man Games has the option to do an English edition, and Zev Shlasinger is still deciding whether he wants to do it. Given Agricola’s list price, the English edition would likely have to be at least $60 due to the awful dollar/Euro exchange rate. (The exchange rate hit $1.45 = €1 on November 5.) Girke said that a French version of Agricola is possible, although not definite, and other companies have expressed interest in Dutch, Portugese, Czech and Polish versions, although these are all just possibilities for now.

What could make these other editions happen, though, is the strength of Agricola in both Fairplay standings and in sales. Lookout Games sold through the 900 copies it brought to Essen, and Hanno has said that the company needs to sell at least 60% of the print run in order to make licensing feasible. (Licensing cuts into sales of the German edition.) Lookout is now talking to German wholesale retailers in order to get distribution and reach that level.

Z-Man Games

Speaking of Z-Man, Zev says, “I have several things in the works but no news as of yet… Essen was great, although saleswise 2006 was better. I need to focus on one or two games only for next year AND make them available only through me.”

Nexus

Bruno Faidutti has reported that Cassiopeia—the first title in Nexus’ new Designer Game Series—is not Space Station Argo, a game he co-designed with Serge Laget that was sort of on the Fantasy Flight production schedule for a few years before being returned to them in 2007. Faidutti’s short description of the game: “Maybe more like Settlers meets Warrior Knights—but in space.”

Isimat

Laurent Morelle attended his first Spiel as publisher, representing the new French company Isimat and six of his designs. Says Morelle, “All six games were quite successful. Overall the public liked them a lot, which was the key point for a first coming out and very satisfying for me as the games inventor. Two big and famous companies were also interested by licencing for some games...what a surprise! We also received the interest of several journalists from different countries.”

Face 2 Face Games

Larry Whalen at Face 2 Face Games says he still has a few tiki heads, a promotional item that can be used as a start player marker for Moai (or for any game really), and anyone who orders Moai from the Face 2 Face Games website will receive a bonus tiki head as long as supplies last. Whalen pointed out that copies of Moai contain 15 bits for wood, when in fact they should have only 14. Tuck the extra bit of wood under the insert, and you’ll make the game as brutal as it’s meant to be.

As for the show in general, Whalen says, “We’re very satisfied with the fair’s results.”

FRED Distribution

Asked for comments about Spiel, Keith Blume rattled off a long list of mostly non-U.S. titles that will be soon available to brick-and-mortar gamestores through FRED Distribution: Freya’s Folly, Neuroshima HEX, Caveman, Fagin’s Gang, Scandaroon, Power and Weakness, About Time, Brass, Mordred, Stoplights, Third World Debt, Celtic Quest, King’s Progress, Whisky Race, Fruit Bandits, 1861, Warriors, and Dragon Hordes. The games are expected to be available before the end of November 2007.

“We were really happy with how the show went,” says Blume. “Overall we heard sales were down, but financially we had a good show. As far as developing our international distribution network, as well as identifying potential distribution and publishing opportunities, we were very happy.”

In terms of titles you can expect to see from FRED, Blume says, “International interest in Through the Ages is really strong, so we are certainly happy about that. We now have three games under contract with Reiner Knizia, in addition to Blazing Aces book of card games: High Society, Money and Attacke. These three are for release in 2008.”

Braunkohl Verlag

Jürgen Kohl had to skip Spiel due to the impending birth of Leon Jonathan Kohl, but his wacked-out Affentennis—which has two players controlling monkey tennis players—was still in attendance. Says Kohl, “The fair in Essen was very successful, and the second edition of Affentennis is sold out. As for news about the third edition: there is now a videorule included where I explain the game. The video is about eight minutes long.”

Pilot Games

Friedemann de Pedro was showing off his first design, Duell im Dunkeln, in his own booth in Hall 6 that was designed like a military bunker—at least that’s what it looked like to my inexperienced eyes—while Z-Man Games was selling the English version, Duel in the Dark, in Hall 9. Expansions for Duel in the Dark have proliferated like flowers to the joy of fans everywhere.

As for the experience of Spiel, de Pedro says, “It was my first show ever, and I never would have believed that there are so many kind and nice people. Signing authographs for four days was also a very new expierience for me. Thanks to all my customers!”

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FRED: “International interest in Through the Ages is really strong, so we are certainly happy about that.” I’m really happy that they happy about it, but I’d be more happy if I could see something about a release date. :-) Posted by Nocad Lee on Nov 10, 2007 at 09:35 AM | #

FRED: I’m very happy to hear about Money re-appearing - this is very good news. I had hoped to hear about a release date on Rails of Europe. Posted by David Reed on Nov 10, 2007 at 10:46 AM | #

nr.2 in fairplay, rank 160, huge buzz, a bgg support forum thread, and mr.Z is “on the fence”? what else does he need to make his decision?! geez. Posted by aristides mytaras on Nov 11, 2007 at 02:06 AM | #

If I understood well the french version is virtualy locked. Look for a company name beginning with Y. Posted by Olivier Reix on Nov 11, 2007 at 07:54 AM | #

Aristides and Olivier, I should note that Hanno and Zev gave me their comments in late October, and I’ve been waiting for notes from other publishers before publishing. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Nov 11, 2007 at 08:33 AM | #

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