The international game fair started on Thursday in Essen with around 1000 innovations in board and parlor games.
According to industry information, there is a particular trend towards cooperative games, but increasingly also two-person games.
600 suppliers from 42 countries are expected at the “Spiel'21” public exhibition.
After the boom in the pandemic year 2020, the sales figures for analogue parlor games have again risen sharply this year.
Essen - in 2020 there was only one online edition, now the four-day “Spiel '21” will take place again in presence.
The visitors can test the innovations - including world premieres according to the organizing Friedhelm Merz Verlag - under strict hygiene requirements.
Game researcher Jens Junge called for an upgrade for the cultural asset of society and board games.
"They belong in the German National Library as a teaching and research collection," said the head of the Institute for Ludologists at SRH University Berlin, the German Press Agency.
"Games are also contemporary documents." They depict the changing culture.
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dpa
