5,007 Board Games Released Last Year

How many were actually good?

imgur.com/xvBwYdV

Mr. White wrote: How many were actually good?

3...Maybe 4.

Very few genuinely new games have been released in the past few years, despite what that chart says. Fact is that 90% of games released recently are all different mixes of the same 10 or so mechanics; the sort of thing 504 highlighted. It's the reason a lot of games tend to feel very samey. Because they are.

It's like Taco Bell. They have what, maybe 10 major ingredients? Taco Bell has a pretty large menu -- the website even has a search function -- for a fast food joint, but they're just changing up the different ways they slap those 10 ingredients together. There's very little actual meaningful variety.

wadenels wrote: Very few genuinely new games have been released in the past few years, despite what that chart says. Fact is that 90% of games released recently are all different mixes of the same 10 or so mechanics; the sort of thing 504 highlighted. It's the reason a lot of games tend to feel very samey. Because they are.

I don't know if I've talked about this here at F:AT, but I think that your point supports the idea that board gaming may be entering a new era, similar to how video games did about twenty years ago. For a long time in arcade games and then home video systems, the industry / art form was still new enough that lots of games became popular either for introducing brand new mechanics or for having much better graphics than previous games. As time went by the graphics got good enough that you no longer saw that sort of "holy shit, I can't believe what I'm seeing" game come along. In fact, the last time I can remember having that feeling over a video game's graphics was probably the first look at Halo at the 2009 MacWorld. But in the 90s and especially the 80s you'd have games cause that reaction pretty frequently. Same thing with the video game mechanics: a character that just jumps and doesn't attack. Using two joysticks to control movement and firing separately. "Quicktime events" in Dragons Lair. Games frequently came along that introduced completely new stuff, but over time the pace of those sorts of radical innovations has dwindled. Is that because of a decrease in creativity though, or just something to be expected as the virgin territory of a new art form gets "settled?"

I think that board games are a lot like that. We're still sort of in the early days, where a game can come out with a completely new mechanic like, say, deck building. But maybe we're hitting that late-90s stage, and the art form is being "settled" so much that the pace with which completely new mechanics and ideas are introduced will dwindle. In a way it's lamentable, but at the same time I think it's an indication that the hobby is growing and maturing.

And who knows? At some point, after years of corporate consolidation, larger board game budgets, larger marketing budgets, and an increasing reliance on production values to make up for a relatively small amount of innovation, perhaps board gaming will have its own version of the indie renaissance that video gaming has seen over the last few years. Heck, the good news is that we don't have to wait for something like Steam to come along and make it possible. There are tiny companies making interesting niche games right now, and maybe that niche will thrive in reaction to the larger industry trends.

I've been sort of halfway pretending like maybe thinking about doing a game shop again. The industry has gone through quite a turnaround over the past few years and I think that as far as the industry as a whole goes, it's much healthier now than when I was in business. I've been talking to the dude that runs the little ramshackle shop in a run-down mall where I get paints and he's doing gangbusters (comparatively) in a shitty location. But he is the only game shop in town, the only CCG hall in town, the only place where you can buy miniatures and board games in town. I mean, this mall is a dump, the kind of place that has suspicious modeling agencies, weird off-brand shoe stores, and a Burlington Coat Factory. But he's doing well and has a big clientele.

But then I think about how different the business is...especially in the board games sector. With 5000+ games released in ONE YEAR, WTF do you carry? I feel like I have a good handle on what sells and what doesn't, but I'm thinking of all the skus that would entail carrying to have a comprehensive selection without pulling the whole "I can order it for you" crap.

So I see 5,007 board games released and I think if I were in business I would see about - very literally - maybe 10 at most of those on my shelf at this time next year. But I see 100 of those on clearance. Maybe there's 10 or 20 that come in strong, sell for three months and then vanish. And then the rest are practically non-existent, have no shelf life whatsoever, or simply aren't in demand.

Granted, this number has a lot of factors in it, like expansions, micro-press games that barely register on the radar, all the kickstarter stuff...but think about how many games from 2015 are still "current"- I mean still bought, talked about, played, and otherwise regarded as part of the gaming discourse. That is a very, very, very small number. The truth of it is, and this is from my experience in games retail and from observation, is that BRANDS sell and continue to sell in the kind of all-important volume needed to be viable not just for the publisher but also the retailer. Catan, Carcassonne, D&D, Ticket to Ride, Zombicide, Descent, Munchkin, Star Wars, Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering, Arkham Horror. What DOESN'T sell are the one-offs with very, very, very few exceptions. For every ten Battle at Kemble's Cascade there is one Puerto Rico. There is a very thin sliver between those top tier, tentpole brands and the extremely niche stuff that has very little longevity or substantial volume. In that sliver is where you'll find stuff like the better-known GMT titles, Fury of Dracula, some of the more popular Eurogames, Seven Wonders, that kind of stuff. But out of 5000 titles, that is a small percentage.

It always shocks me how quickly games sink or swim, too. When we get stuff at Miniature Market, I think "OK need to assign somebody to this". But the reality of it is that putting someone on some little cheesedick Kickstarter game like Fireteam Zero or whatever is kind of pointless- that game is going to clearance. It's almost like the industry makes games JUST to be sold on clearance tables at conventions.

Bottom line is this. There's just too much junk out there. And most of it is barely even saleable junk. So what does that mean in a five year, ten year projection?

And from a player's perspective, there is NOT enough variety, innovation or different concepts to support FIVE THOUSAND releases a year. There isn't enough for 50 releases a year. At some point, you do have to break it down by looking at how many different design archetypes and concepts there are and how many finite ways you can plug and play various mechanics into those to do things just slightly different enough to make a new game.

Sorry to beat on the GW drum more, but this is one of the reasons I'm so into what they are doing now. They do not give a fuck about putting in a worker placement mechanic or doing a deckbuilder. They put that shit on FFG. The games they do are so basic and unadorned they fly in the face of current "gamer" values. Deathwatch is MERCILESSLY basic. But in that extremely basic structure, there is a lot of actual gameplay and tons of narrative. All without being propped up by what is driving the market today. That game could have been released 100% as is in 1988. Same with Execution Force, Calth, and even Silver Tower. These games are the punk rock of game design right now, they are the Ramones to the Chvatil Rush.

Now, as a buyer...I am not buying anything else apart from anything that is just STUPENDOUSLY unique or innovative that I can't get a review copy of. I'm serious. I'm done buying new games altogether, there is no point. I will spend all of my hobby funbux on GW games and maybe other miniatures games (like Armada and Tanks and possibly Guildball), which give me far more value than these flash-in-the-pan playalikes that I wind up flipping anyway. And also older, OOP type stuff like Knizia classics, still in the market there too. There's just too much to keep up with, too many releases competing for my money. I'm out.

The thing is that nobody buys 5,000 games a year. They buy maybe 12. That's why there's 5000...everyone has a game they think is amazing and slick and new. But it's not. And many times, it's not copying, it's simply that two people have the same idea for a similar kind of game.

Case in point: I did not know that Zombicide used sound tokens until a week ago. I've played it with a buddy a couple of times and didn't like it, and now I realize why: we were playing by his house rules all along. No weapons taken by zombies. Fatties spawn alone. And I never saw sound tokens. I asked about the symbols on the cards and he said that if a zombie has LOS and you make a sound in front of you, they interrupt with an action.

So, I design a game that relies crucially on a sound mechanic. I play it with maybe 20 people. Nobody says dick. Then I get a wild hair and get Zombicide to play around with, mostly for the models. Fucking A. Sound tokens.

For perspective, there were over 500 000 books released just in Spain last year and after a massive crisis that hit the publishing industry very hard.

Similarly, there are around 6000 games on Steam which has sparked huge amounts of controversy, but it's a pitiful amount compared to the average bookstore's catalogue, a national franchise here lists around 1.1 million books in its catalogue.

I think that gaming is a bit stuck in this regard. Culturally we still are under the impression that everyone has played the same games because back in the day, it was true and because blockbusters are more present than ever. But it's not really true and it will become less and less true as time goes on.

Damn, that's a lot of games. I imagine the bulk of it is every version of Monopoly, Candyland, Risk, etc., that's on the shelves of Target and Walmart. Still ... that's a lot of games. And a lot of them are crowd-funded.

I gave up on following new releases a few years ago. I have no idea what's current, or even kinda newish. My time right now is spent playing Pokemon go and dreaming of getting some of the GW specialist games played.

Michael Barnes wrote: Now, as a buyer...I am not buying anything else apart from anything that is just STUPENDOUSLY unique or innovative that I can't get a review copy of. I'm serious. I'm done buying new games altogether, there is no point. I will spend all of my hobby funbux on GW games and maybe other miniatures games (like Armada and Tanks and possibly Guildball), which give me far more value than these flash-in-the-pan playalikes that I wind up flipping anyway. And also older, OOP type stuff like Knizia classics, still in the market there too. There's just too much to keep up with, too many releases competing for my money. I'm out.

Ha! This is exactly where I was two years ago when y'all trolled me.

We all go through phases and whatever the current phase is usually the 'best time ever'. "Playing classic euros, I'm enjoying games more than ever!" "Having two games on my shelf...best time ever!" "Only playing minis games. Why did I stop? Best. Time. Ever!"

Anyway, yeah I've been done with boardgames for a while and what little I have...I need to move some to make room for my Dark Future. I'd rather flip through hot wheels at the grocery store than head over to a 'new releases' section of a game store. that's too exhausting for me.

However, it does take all types. I like a little Rush...but I don't need 5,007 Rushes. I love the Ramones. Do I need 5,007 of them? Hell no. I don't even listen to the Queers or Screeching Weasel. If I want the Ramones...I listen to the Ramones. If I want a Euro...I play Settlers or Condo or Citadels. I'm good there.

Regarding GW...I'd say they're more Iron Maiden. Both don't give a flip what year it is or what the current trends are...they're gonna keep belting out their lavish productions...decade in and decade out.

Seriously, who cares? I think I only noticed 2 or 3 this year. Maybe more from the years beyond.

But these days, the only I know a new game is released is through a glance to BGG's the hotness, when a friend mention it, or it's on my youtube home page (I'm subscribed to Dice Tower), and then I forgot 99% of these.

It's the same on pc game side...

The Wii still released more games though