Instead of the physical trade fair SPIEL in Essen, which we all miss, the eagerly awaited experiment with the SPIEL.digital will start from 22nd to 25th October 2020. The industry cannot complain in principle, because the sales in Germany growth of e.g. 30% for adult games, 13% for children's games and also 13% for card games is impressive. Overall sales of games and puzzles grew by 21%. The industry expects sales of over 50 million games in 2020.

In an ambitious tour de force, Merz-Verlag has now created a digital platform with 17 theme worlds and so-called heat maps, so that every visitor can see directly at which exhibitor stands there is currently a lot going on. This enables more than 400 exhibitors from all over the world to present themselves with their own content. There will also be the opportunity to play a number of the more than 1,400 announced innovations online and gain a first impression.

The media and bloggers who are also present on the platform will also play an important role. Some publishers offer parallel game authors the opportunity to present their prototypes online via Zoom, Skype, or other software.

Regardless of this, most publishers say that such online presentations are always possible by appointment. For a (still growing) overview of the publishers and to get in contact with them, we recommend both publishers and game designers to have a look at our new section Publisher Profiles.