Typically I wait to announce new products until a few weeks before we’re ready to launch and ship them, but yesterday I tried something different: Taking inspiration from Nintendo Direct, Marvel Studios, and Garphill Games, I revealed our full 2026 product lineup on a YouTube and Facebook livecast, quarter by quarter.

There are a few reasons I did this:

• I like to experiment with methods and approaches we haven’t tried before to see if they feel right to us and are useful/fun for our audience.
• Based on the status of our 2026 products, I have high levels of certainty regarding the schedule. This isn’t always the case, even with our typical rough 3-year release roadmap.
• Our 2026 is largely driven by expansions and new editions, so people already have a lot of context for the various reveals.
• Previewing these products helps me learn how to talk about them clearly and succinctly while I gauge people’s responses to different information and phrasing.

The method I used for the reveals was a premiere video via Streamyard (livecast simultaneously on YouTube and Facebook), with the link posted around a day in advance and in a newsletter I sent 15 minutes before the livecast. I spent around 15 minutes per quarter, using tangible visuals (cards, boards, art, etc) from almost every product to convey the idea that these are real products that do/will exist.

During the reveals, I intentionally didn’t show the box covers or even the product names. This was just a preview; the full reveal for these products will come much closer to their respective launches, and I think it’s far too soon for them to appear on BoardGameGeek. I answered some questions about the products, but I didn’t get into the weeds of card quantities, sizes, pricing, etc.

At the end of the video, I asked people for feedback on the format, and people universally said they liked that it offered things to look forward to throughout the year and the ability to plan ahead (especially for expansions). Some said that the preview felt like the opposite of a FOMO tactic, which isn’t something I had thought about, but I was happy to hear that.

Here’s a quick recap of what I revealed in the video:

• Q1: Wingspan expansion (based on the birds of Central and South America and the Caribbean; vision friendly cards are available as an add-on) and a Viticulture expansion (a new 4-season board with the original board on the back)
• Q2: Euphoria Essential (combines the expansion with the core game and offers a new board layout with some rules tweaks; the board and rules will be available separately for those who already have Euphoria) and the first Finspan expansion (I previewed a shark card and a colorful fish)
• Q3: Scythe vs Expeditions 2-player dueling game (this content expands Scythe and Expeditions, and all Scythe factions/player mats and Expeditions mechs/characters are compatible with the dueling game; there will be add-on packs containing metal versions of the mechs and a plastic airship [which isn’t used in the dueling game]), a small-box, lighter Wingspan bird experience playable in around 3o minutes, and a mini-expansion to Origin Story (many more superheroes)
• Q4: The first Smoking Bones game from artist and worldbuilder Andrew Bosley and a debut designer (see some info about the world here) and our version of Namiji (combines the core game and the expansion in a normal box size with accessibility updates)
• reprints for the Nesting Box and Rolling Realm promos (other reprints for out-of-stock products are dependent on demand as indicated by back-in-stock requests on our webstore)

There are visuals and details in the video, and I’m happy to answer some questions in the comments.

We send semi-monthly newsletters for many of our games that include future teasers and details, recent reviews and content, and more. Here is the most recent edition of each update; each includes a link to subscribe if you’d like to stay in touch.

• Expeditions/Scythe (November)
• World of Wingspan (November)
• Rolling Realms (October)
• Apiary (October)
• Vantage (December)
• Stamp Swap (November)
• Tokaido (October)
• Viticulture (first update coming soon)
• Origin Story (November)

Last, here is the full preview video. What did you think about this experiment?

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