
Solo play is now one of board gaming’s defining mechanisms, university research of 104,000 titles finds
Solo play ranked as the third most prevalent component in games released between 2020 and 2025, behind only dice rolling and hand management.

Solo play ranked as the third most prevalent component in games released between 2020 and 2025, behind only dice rolling and hand management.

After years spent engaging with publishers and designers - both at Capstone Games and through his Board Again Gaming podcast - Christopher High believes the several thousand new board games and expansions released each year are pushing publishers towards commercially safer bets. Now he's wagering his company Valor Mountain Games can succeed by taking chances on the kinds of titles other publishers are passing over.

As trading card games continue to fuel growth across the tabletop industry, hobby retailers are placing greater emphasis on the accessories that support organised play. In this sponsored article, TCG and board game accessories maker Sanseking explains how changing player behaviour is reshaping retail strategy and why competitive accessories are becoming a more important part of the European hobby market.

The annual awards, which have now been running for 17 years, aim to act as a showcase and celebration of business practices, community-building and operational innovations that other hobby retailers can learn from.

While many of Generation Analog 2026's presentations explore environmental issues, the conference's broad 'Green' theme also encompasses topics including newcomer experiences, representation, identity, game history and design philosophy.

JinxO designer Martin Ang's victory underscores the growing internationality of the venerable German board games award, which until last year's success for Hishashi Hayashi's Bomb Busters had never been won by an Asian designer.

Marino joins Devir in the newly-created role after nine years at The Op, including the last four as director of hobby games, where he helped oversee releases such as runaway hit Flip 7, Gnome Hollow and Tacta.

The publisher will debut 'Season One' of Shelfy at Gen Con later this month, featuring 28 miniature recreations of board game boxes for titles including Gloomhaven, Dune Imperium and Boop.

While many indie game designers and small publishers view moving to overseas manufacturing as an inevitable step once demand grows, Eurydice believes its experience demonstrates that remaining in-house can make commercial sense for certain types of games.

Unlike bespoke icon systems created by publishers for individual games, Francisco and Eastridge hope they have created a universal visual language that players can learn once and recognise across multiple titles.

The awards, one of tabletop gaming’s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has crowned its latest group of winners after whittling them down from 120 nominees.

Czech Games Edition chief executive Petr Murmak has confirmed US tariffs are the main reason American customers will pay about $30 more than their European counterparts for the publisher’s newly announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game, underlining how import duties…

Wyld has added the Arizona-based business to a portfolio that already includes Wayland Games, miniatures game publisher Warcradle Studios, Occam Distribution, gaming mat maker Kraken Wargames and media outlet OnTableTop.

Ronnebaum's hire marks a continuation of high turnover at the top of GAMA's comms department, with former incumbent Eric Francis having only joined the organisation 12 months ago.

Attendance slipped to 18,700 at this year's event in June from a post-pandemic record of 19,171 last year - and remains below the all-time high of 20,642 posted in 2019.

Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière’s design fought off competition from Florian Maas' citybuilding game Project Skyline and Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva's Railroad Ink sequel Railroad Tiles to take the 2026 award.

Plaid Hat said it had failed to give prospective backers enough reasons to pledge rather than wait for retail.

E Eric Reuss said he expects to be able to license Spirit Island to a new publisher "within the next year or so" according to an update posted to BoardGameGeek and Reddit, adding that dozens of publishers had reached out to express interest in the title and that negotiations with one unnamed company were "going well".

The move broadens Awaken Realms' publishing portfolio beyond the large-scale, narrative-driven and miniature-heavy titles for which it is best known, such as the hugely lucrative Nemesis series, Tainted Grail and ISS Vanguard.

The company, which has built its reputation adapting indie comics into tabletop games such as Mind MGMT, has unveiled Off the Page Games Unbound, which will publish games not tied to existing comic book licences.

Red Castle Games owner Matthew Mičetić told BoardGameWire expanding scope to welcome young people, families and casual gamers was one of the biggest opportunities for game stores today.