Castles of Burgundy reprinting could spark a board game arms race

For almost a decade there has been an escalation in the arms race in board games. Consumers now measure the weight of the products they buy not just in complexity, but in pounds. But I sense that a fundamental change is on the horizon. With decades-old items still holding their own against a barrage of new releases, it’s about time publishers started improving their back catalogs in interesting ways. Castles of Burgundy: Deluxe Edition feels like the first big push in that direction.

Castles of Burgundy

, designed by Stefan Feld and first released in 2011, is one of those European-style board games that keeps popping up in conversation about the genre. It is an exemplary game, a smooth and engaging city builder with many different nested systems. It’s also a game that looks beautiful on the table – even when rendered in 2D using cardboard tiles.

Now Ravensburger has announced a deluxe edition via its Alea imprint. A press release on Thursday indicated that the deluxe edition will feature a new graphical design and a refined user experience, resulting in “easier gameplay and better legibility” on the tabletop. It will also include component upgrades such as elaborate castle tokens and metal coins.

Component upgrades are often sold as add-ons to boutique board games. For example, you can pick up a bunch of resin resources and metal coins for games like scythe from Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile directly on the manufacturer’s website. But these are relatively new games, with smaller publishers looking to increase margins on sales of their most profitable titles.

Publisher Ravensburger, a multi-divisional multinational, is a much larger entity in the tabletop space. It’s also an investor in Poland-based Gamefound, Kickstarter’s biggest competitor in tabletop crowdfunding.

Castles of Burgundy: Deluxe Edition could have been a piecemeal collection full of a la carte upgrades, stuffed animals and t-shirts. Instead, it feels like a savvy marketing exercise to reward money-hungry fans who’ve loved the game for years — and also appeal to a broader, more affluent audience looking to try something new. After all, if you’re spending time learning one of the best board games, why not get the best version available?

We’ll know more once the project goes live in May. Until then you will find a preview available online, with the option to receive a notification of launch. More than 15,600 have registered so far.