Re-Roll: This Week’s Tabletop Game News for the Week Ending May 28, 2021

Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending May 28, 2021.

Gaming News

• It isn’t news at this point that the pandemic helped generate record sales throughout the board game industry, but just how big that boom is may be surprising. According to research firm Euromonitor International, board games, tabletop RPGs, puzzles, and trading card games will see sales exceeding $12.4 billion this year, up from an estimated $11.7 billion last year, which, in turn, was over $1 billion more than the 2019 figure. The US accounts for about a third of that total.
• Catan is (again) going 3D. Priced at the same $300 the 10th edition 3D set was at (but without that cool case), the game features tiles sculpted by Klaus Teuber. You can pre-order the game now for August shipping.
• Paizo has announced that Amazon has turned over further development of the Starfinder Alexa Skill to digital publisher Wanderword. The skill allows a solo player to enjoy an interactive adventure within the game.
• Games Workshop announced lots of info about the various animation projects it has going on and its new VOD subscription service, Warhammer+.
• Two of the biggest franchises in the world of gaming have come together as The Op has officially released Monopoly: Dungeons & Dragons. Classic D&D classes are the player tokens, and most of the “properties” are monsters from the RPG.
• The D4 conference, hosted by the Comic-Con Museum, has released the full programming schedule. The conference runs online from June 4-6.
• Evolution: Climate is coming to Steam and the Nintendo Switch in July. Both the original Evolution and its Climate expansion are included. Evolution is our featured image this week.
• Portal Games has released Vienna Connection, a story-driven game set in the Cold War and built on the Detective game system.
• CMON has joined forces with Netflix to create Army of the Dead: A Zombicide Game as a tie-in to the overly long Zach Snyder movie. The stand-alone game uses the Zombicide mechanics. No release date has yet been announced.
• Steamforged has opened up late pledges for its massive miniatures-based Monster Hunter World: The Board Game. If you missed the Kickstarter for the game, based on the same video game that inspired the very fun Mila Jovovich movie from earlier this year, you can now get in on the all-in pledge, which includes basically everything for the game, for $293.
• Pandasaurus is taking pre-orders for Brew, a game that you can use to get your beer-drinking friends to the table before you tell them that it’s actually a game about bringing balance back to a magical forest.
• Spin Master Games and Marvel United designer Eric Lang have announced Disney Sidekicks, a game where players take on the roles of characters like Timon and Pumbaa, Tinker Bell, and Abu to rescue the bigger-name heroes. The game is due on shelves on August 1.
• Kitchen Rush: Revised Edition is finally making its way to shelves in the US. Pegasus-Spiele is taking pre-orders on the real-time cooperative worker placement game but has not announced a release date.

GeekDad Reviews

Here’s what we reviewed this week:

• Michael Pistiolas reviewed Barnyard Bunch.

What We’re Playing

Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:

• Paul Benson played War Room, Paleo, and Cyberpunk Red.
• Jonathan Liu played The Crew, Kroma, Fall of the Mountain King, Hidden Leaders, Long Shot: The Dice Game, and My Singing Monsters: The Board Game.
• Robin Brooks played Godtear and Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm.
• Will James played Cloaked Cats and My Little Scythe.
• Michael Pistiolas played Sword & Sorcery, Barnyard Bunch, Andor: The Family Fantasy Game, 5er Finden, Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, and Roll Player.
• Z. plated Dungeons & Dragons: Ghosts of Saltmarsh.