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Report. UK Games Expo
can absorb and the impact perceived by these companies is that expert gamers are being more selective in their back- ing habits. This may be a consequence of the economic climate in the UK, but it is more likely because the volume is too great for anyone to deal with. Competi- tion amongst online retailers is fierce and smaller online retailers have suffered as a result as they are unable to compete on price. This is particularly true for expert gamers who hunt down the best deals.
However, larger retailers such as Wa- terstones who are best known for their chain of book shops, are now prominent in the board game retail side and they had a large booth at the show. So clearly there are new entrants into this market as board games become more popular than ever. The pandemic increased their pop- ularity of course, but this has continued onwards since that time.
UK designers and companies continue to expand, fuelled by smaller startups some of which will become the next well- known publishers, when they hit upon a great design. But the UK market and UKGE is an international one. Companies from Canada, Italy, America, Japan, Ger- many, Switzerland, and Australia as well as many other parts of Europe all attend the show. The main attraction of course is being able to sell, but what drew them into UKGE in the first place? Warp Core games from Australia have 40 percent of their business arising from the UK, so it is a good opportunity to satisfy customers with new products such as Star Tycoon, a card-based game with a good market mechanism as players build production and other facilities for their spaceships.
The CEO of Inside Up games, Conor Mc- Goey, has had tremendous success with Earth. Following this he tested UKGE last year and was surprised with the scale and atmosphere of the event. Both Inside Up and Warp Core found the event very fam- ily friendly, with a balanced male/female audience, and far bigger than they ex- pected. They perceived the attendees as “omnivorous” gamers meaning that their tastes covered a wide range of games with an engaging environment, making UKGE an enjoyable experience. “UKGE is a great place for families, though Essen SPIEL is where the business gets done.
“I’m a big fan of everything Euro- pean and it’s nice to be on this side of the pond. For about seven years I only attended Essen, but I wanted to come to UK Games Expo and I came with my
family and we fell in love. I worked on the silly assumption that because every- thing is so close here that it was all in the same market. But it blew my mind. It’s completely different. We have a whole new customer base here now because of people who don’t go across to Essen who are introduced to the booth for the first time,” Conor McGoey said.
I Games were awarded
in 19 categories
A game show would not be complete
without awards, and UKGE covers these in 19 categories. The awards are called People’s Choice and includes role play- ing, miniatures, and party games. These are some of the winners:
Best Boardgame (Strategic): Voidfall by Nigel Buckle, and Dávid Turczi (Mind- clash Games)
Best Card Game (Strategic): Pioneer Rails by Jeffrey D. Allers, and Matthew Dunstan (Dranda Games)
Best Boardgame (American Style): Ru­ nescape Kingdoms: Shadows of Elvarg by Mat Hart, Sherwin Matthews, Fraser McFettridge, and Jamie Perkins (Steam- forged Games)
Best Boardgame (Euro Style): Windmill Valley by Dani Garcia (Board & Dice) Best Family Game: Mycelia by Daniel Greiner (Ravensburger)
Best Children’s Game: My Gold Mine by Hans Joachim Höh, Michael Loth, and Christof Schilling (Kosmos)
Outside the show, the UK market is thriving. There are so many board game conventions (probably 50+ large ones of 100 or more people, many of which take place several times a year and hundreds of smaller ones) as the desire to meet friends, try out new games and find out more about what is arriving from around the world. For the well-informed gamer, the UKGE is a great place to catch up before GenCon in America and Essen SPIEL in Germany. The latest games are available to assess and publishers are happy to talk about the majority of their future plans. It’s an enjoyable show, with a great atmosphere.
Next year’s event is already taking book- ings (for 30th May to 1st June).
Huge gaming areas are waiting to be filled at the start of UKGE (previ- ous page). And they succeeded, with over 65,000 visitors attending UK’s largest games fair. Even if the flood of new products in Birmingham is manageable compared to a trade fair like Essen SPIEL, there are still some interesting titles to be found, such as Kugo or the app-supported new edition of Light Speed (top left).
Photos: How, UKGE