Rising manufacturing costs, falling purchasing power: at the International Board Games Festival, which is being held until Sunday in Cannes, the time has come for small, inexpensive but increasingly sophisticated formats.
Long confined to a handful of classics, the board games sector has grown significantly since the beginning of the 2000s, before experiencing a spectacular boom with the various confinements linked to Covid.
In 2023, the sector still recorded a turnover of more than 550 million euros, or 7% more than in 2019... but 2% less than in 2022. Despite an abundant offer of hundreds new games per year, running out of steam threatens.
The rise in paper prices and the hazards of transport from China, the main place of manufacturing, have caused costs to soar, while in the face of inflation and the housing crisis, game boxes that we no longer know where to put is not a priority.
Hence the growing interest in small, inexpensive game boxes, as shown by the list of best sellers on Amazon: nothing above 20 euros.
At the end of 2021, Nicolas Saleil, creator of the
“Olémains”
application , released this card game to guess, mime or hum in a box with 600 cards, a board, tokens etc., sold for around 30 euros.
250,000 have been sold in two years, but
“today, we would do it for 300 cards and 20 euros
,” he explains.
This will be the format of
Mind Me
, his company's new game coming out in May, where players have to guess one of their own answers to crazy or personal questions.
Same story with the successful publisher Iello (
Code Names
,
King of Tokyo
...):
"Before, we easily went with boxes with boards, dice... But it costs more and people are less willing to spend
,” explains Laurène Chartier, communications manager.
“Now we still have big games, but for a smaller audience.
The minimalist side appeals and we will more easily sign a small game
,” she adds.
Among the successes present in the crowded aisles of the festival, where 80,000 visitors are now expected each year,
“Crack List”
illustrates this trend.
Self-distributed by its creators in 2022, this 19-euro card game mixing
Uno
and
Petit bac
has already sold 300,000 copies and is now targeting the German, Italian and American markets.
And this year, it’s
“Trio”
(Cocktail Games, 13 euros) which obtained the coveted Golden Ace of the festival: a card game already sold 100,000 copies since its release in spring 2023. It mobilizes memory, tactical sense and luck to guess the opponents' cards.
And if you start to get bored, variations allow you to spice up the game.
“There have always been these little games, quick, simple, that we call aperitif games.
But they are starting to offer real depths of play, greater complexity
,” rejoices Cynthia Reberac, general commissioner of the festival.
This is the case of
Far Away
(Catch Up Games, 18 euros), another card game whose stand at the festival was stormed and which was awarded the As d'Or in the
“Initiate”
category .
“But we continue to highlight expert games at 70/80 euros, with extensions that can go much higher
,” explains Cynthia Reberac.
In the aisles of the show, there was no shortage of sprawling games, with sumptuous boards, a plethora of pawns, cards, constructions, olfactory vials or fabulous monsters... And the Golden Ace
“Expert”
returned to
“ La Famiglia”
(Super Meeple, 80 euros), a complex team board game set against the backdrop of struggles between mafia families in Sicily.