「ドイツ年間ねんかんゲーム大賞たいしょう」日本人にっぽんじん制作せいさくのゲームが初はつ受賞じゅしょう

The Bomb Busters, designed by Japanese game designer Takashi Hayashi, has been selected for the German Game of the Year, considered the worlds most prestigious board game award.

This is the first time that a game made by a Japanese person has won this award.

The Spiel des Jahres German Game of the Year is awarded annually to the best board game or card game sold in German-speaking countries, and is considered the most prestigious award in the world of board games.

On the 14th, Japan time, this years grand prize was announced in Germany, and Bomb Busters, designed by Japanese game designer Takashi Hayashi, was selected.

Bomb Busters is a board game where players cooperate to defuse bombs by cutting wires, and the game progresses as they deduce and guess the numbers on other players tiles, which represent the wires.

It is said that although board games created by Japanese game designers have previously made it to the final nominees for the German Game of the Year award, this is the first time one has actually won.

At the award ceremony, Takashi Hayashi said, I want to thank everyone supporting me from Japan, my friends who come to my house every week to playtest, and my beloved wife.

The Spiel des Jahres, the worlds most prestigious award in the board game industry, is an esteemed prize that began in 1979 in Germany, a country known globally for its thriving board game scene.

Every year, board games and card games released in German-speaking countries during that year and the previous year are considered, and critics and others select the works that are most suitable for promoting game culture. These selections attract attention from board game enthusiasts around the world.

Currently, there are three categories: Grand Prize, Expert, and Kids. Games that are still widely played today, such as Catan, Carcassonne, and Dominion, have been selected for the Grand Prize.

Games from countries such as Germany and the United States have received awards in the past, but this is the first time that a game created by a Japanese designer has won.

The award-winning Bomb Busters is a board game where players work together to cut the bombs wires and defuse it. The game progresses as players deduce and guess the numbers on other players tiles, which represent the wires.

The popularity of board games is rapidly increasing in Japan. In recent years, the popularity of board games has been rapidly rising within the country.

According to a survey jointly conducted by the Analog Game Industry Yearbook Production Committee and Yano Research Institute, the domestic market size for analog games—including board games and card games—is expected to reach approximately 7.8 billion yen in fiscal 2024, showing a growth trend. In addition, the number of published titles has tripled, increasing from 78 in 2013 to 234 in 2023.

According to the website of Game Market, the largest analog game event in Japan, there were about 400 participants in the event in 2000, but this spring, there were about 27,000 people over two days, showing that the number of fans has increased significantly over the past 20 years.

According to Mr. Hitoshi Yasuda, who is well-versed in the Japanese board game scene, board games gradually started to become popular around 2010. He believes that the increase in cafes where people can enjoy games, as well as the ease of sharing game information on social media, helped board games take root in Japan.

In this context, it is said that board games designed by Japanese people are increasingly being released overseas and are attracting attention.

Also, recently, instead of competitive games where players compete against each other to determine a winner, many cooperative games in which multiple players work together to achieve a common goal have been released, and for three consecutive years, including Bomb Busters, cooperative games have won the German Game of the Year award.