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In this week's news round-up we have exciting news regarding a co-operative Lord of the Rings game from Fantasy Flight, alongside the possibility of a legacy edition of Terraforming Mars and proof that we're all Dobble mad!
Lord of the Rings - One Ring to Rule them All!
2019 is really starting to hot up in the tabletop world as Fantasy Flight Games have just announced Lord of the Rings: Journeys into Middle Earth. This fully co-operative board game, designed by Nathan Hajek and Grace Holdinghaus, launches players into the world of Middle Earth, taking on the roles of the characters such as Frodo, Gimli and Legolas! The game will feature app-integration, with many speculating that this will be a Mansions of Madness style game.
One key difference to note is that dice will not be included in the game, instead players will use skill cards to perform actions, complete skill checks and for other such things necessary in the game. Players will travel across the map tiles and this, in turn, will reveal tiles and encounters, all of this being dictated by the app, very similar to Mansions of Madness. While the characters will move across a large map board, combat encounters will take place on smaller boards, signifying camps and areas of interest in which the heroes will fight. The enemies will be represented with 25 miniatures.
All of this is looking very promising and I am already excited to see what this Lord of the Rings game can bring to the table! As many of you will know, I am a massive fan of Mansions, so to hear we will be getting a Lord of the Rings equivalent is fantastic news for myself! A release date is yet to be announced for Journeys into Middle Earth.
The Legacy of Terraforming Mars lives on!
Exciting news for fans of Terraforming Mars! Stephen Buonocore, of Stronghold Games, was recently a guest on the Board Game Gumbo podcast when he was asked by a fan if Terraforming Mars would be receiving the legacy treatment. Much to everyone’s delight he confirmed that; “Jacob and Isaac Fryxelius are 100% working on the Legacy version of Terraforming Mars”.
While this may get fans chomping at the bit for information, Stephen was quick to say that it is still early days and we shouldn’t expect to see anything until 2020 or 2021. What this game may look like is anyone’s guess but if the original game is anything to go by, we should be in for a treat!
The UK has gone Dobble Mad!
It appears the UK has gone a bit mad for the family-friendly, quick-fire card game, Dobble! The trade publication ToyNews has recently crowned Dobble as the top selling game of 2018 in the UK. Sales of Dobble were up 24% for last year alone and it looks like it is going from strength to strength!
The data from Decembers report showed Dobble as the “clear” best-selling game in terms of value in the UK for 2018, putting Dobble ahead of its rivals such as Catan and Ticket to Ride as well as every brand-new release that was launched in 2018.
If you are yet to play this crazy symbol-matching game, it is available on our website now, with various varieties also available, such as Star Wars, Disney Princesses and a Waterproof Edition suitable for the beach! ToyNews also reported that new variants will be released in 2019!
Board Games Killed the Video Game (Kick)Star(ter)
2018 was a fantastic year for board games in general but one area that really excelled was that of the Kickstarter realm! Kickstarter have reported that the number of tabletop games that have funded more than $500,000 has doubled compared to 2017, going from 34 to 68 games!
The games category, which incorporates both tabletop and video games, saw $192 million worth of funding, up by $30m on last year.
Perhaps most impressive of all however is that tabletop gaming accounted for 30% of the entire amount of money raised through Kickstarter as a whole! $165m was funded for tabletop projects, a 20% increase from 2017. This figure completely overshadows the video game category though, with video games only managing £16m worth of funding, down from $17m that it raised last year. Nearly 3,700 projects were launched in the tabletop gaming genre with over 63% of these being funded successfully.
All of this shows the continuing trend from consumers of heading from digital formats to more physical ones, such as vinyl and in this case, board games. This should allow the hobby to grow from strength to strength this year so hopefully 2019 will see an even bigger growth than last year!
