Board game market is rapidly growing with the advent of cloud funding and expanding market scale

Due to the popularity of TV games and the appearance of smartphones, board games, which are a kind of analog games, are gradually decreasing in popularity in Japan. However, in the United States and Europe, the market size of board games is rapidly expanding in recent years, and the appearance of cloud funding seems to have a big influence there, and FiveThirtyEight is approaching that details.

Crowdfunding Is Driving A $ 196 Million Board Game Renaissance | FiveThirtyEight
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/crowdfunding-is-driving-a-196-million-board-game-renaissance/

In 1995 the legendary board game in Germany "Pioneers of Catan"Was released, and then landed in the United States and recorded a huge hit worldwide in a blink of an eye. After the appearance of the pioneers of Katan, a lot of strategic, formal high rules different from the previous board game, and a lot of board games with high level as art were born. The player's population is also rising to the right, and festivals of games that do not use any devices such as board games, card games, pen & paper RPG such as game machines at all "Gen Con"The number of visitors in 2015 is about 200,000, and we have updated the record of the number of visitors for the sixth consecutive year.

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The board game market is also growing greatly,Market size in 2015Is only US $ 125 million (about 15.4 billion yen) in the United States and Canada alone, about 3 billion yen more than the $ 100 million (20.4 billion yen) in 2013.

It is a cloud funding site such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo which contributes greatly to the growth of the board game market. For example, since Kickstarter started service in 2009, the total number of projects for board games and card games entered was 3870, totaling 196 million dollars (about 24.3 billion yen) was collected. As of August 2015, 168 projects are also recruiting investment,Project that gathered the most contribution by KickstarterAmong them, the fourth largest kitten in the explosion kills the card game "Exploding Kittens"Is the 13th place Zombie board game"Zombicide: Black PlagueIt is contained.


According to FiveThirtyEight, Cloud Funding plays two important roles in the board game market. One is a system of cloud funding, the system that the game designer publishes the idea of ​​the board game made by himself by using images and movies and seeks investment, the designer himself / herself "The player makes a game It seems that they are contributing to the proper understanding of what they are seeking.

Another reason that cloud funding is important to the board game market is that it is a democratic tool. Thanks to the appearance of Cloud Funding, game designers no longer have to market their own games to their distributors themselves and be able to sell them freely. If you brought it to a sales company, the marketing campaign and illustrations of board games will leave the designer's hands, but if it is individual sales through cloud funding, you can manage everything.

Also, various websites for board games are appearing to respond to cloud funding. Publish know-how for teaching and advancing what to watch out for board games at Kickstarter and advicesiteAndReview site specialized for board gamesThere also appeared multiple. These factors are driving the growth of board game designers and the board game market.


In Kickstarter "Vikings of DragoniaMach 's saying that he had the experience of exhibiting the board game "I am planning to improve the board game a little more based on this experience and plan to sell it to Kickstarter again", said Machi It was.

As for the Japanese board game market, Japan Toy Association announced(PDF)Results of survey data on domestic toy market size in 2014The market in the field including board games is about 12.9 billion yen. It is 94.1% lower than the previous year and is contracting. Since this includes analog games other than board games, the actual market size of board games alone is expected to be smaller.