Sonnenfanatiker, Gesandte von Nah und Fern, Angehörige der Mark und freier Städte und viele, viele mehr: Zu Ostern lud die Panmi-Orga zur vierten Con der Nordenbrand-Reihe nach Brandenburg ein. Das Ende der politischen Verstrickungen dieser drei Tage und der vorangegangenen drei Jahre war eines, welches von vielen nicht vorausgesehen ward.
Dieser Beitrag wurde von Gastautor*in geschrieben
After 20 years growing the UK Games Expo into one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions in the world, founders Richard Denning and Tony Hyams are preparing for their eventual exit by bringing in AireCon co-founder Mark Cooke as operations director.
Cooke joins following another record year for UKGE, which has seen its annual unique attendance surge almost 65% since 2023 to reach more than 51,000.
The show has already well surpassed Gen Con in terms of trade hall size, with the British event now spanning about 44,000 sq m – about 40% larger than Gen Con’s trade hall area – and hosting around 900 exhibitors in 2026.
That soaring growth has put increasing pressure on the small organising team at UKGE, with Denning telling BoardGameWire last year that the show had strained a full-time workforce which stood at just six people – although UKGE also relies on more than 200 volunteers, GMs, umpires and other helpers to deliver the convention each year.
Cooke is no stranger to growing a UK board game convention, having co-founded and built AireCon with Ben Clarkson from a 28-person gaming weekend in his flat a decade ago into England’s second-largest board game con, with about 5,000 attendees this year.
His hire by UKGE comes just three weeks after AireCon revealed that despite its own soaring growth, its 2027 show in Harrogate would be its last – saying a combination of factors had “made it increasingly challenging to run AireCon in a way that preserves the character and spirit that made it so special in the first place”.
More than 5,500 people are expected at the final AireCon – which has been nicknamed Airemageddon – with Cooke set to continue working on that final show before moving to UKGE full time.
A statement from UKGE emphasised the hire was part of a phased transition for UKGE’s organisers, and was “not a sudden change of leadership or direction”.
It said Cooke would work alongside Denning and Hyams “over the next few UK Games Expo events”, ensuring that knowledge, experience and responsibilities the pair have built up over the last 20 years are handed over “gradually and thoughtfully”.
Denning said, “As UKGE has expanded to now one of the world’s largest shows we have gradually grown our team, adding event managers, administrators and logistics support.
“Bringing in Mark as operations director is the next logical step as we put in place plans to ensure UKGE can run far into the future.
“We have known Mark through AireCon and other industry roles for many years now and he is an ideal choice bringing both event management experience, energy and fresh ideas to the team as well as a safe pair of hands as and when Tony and I eventually step away from the show we have built together with others.”
Cooke added, “I’m incredibly excited to be joining the UK Games Expo team and to have the opportunity to play a part in the next chapter of such an important event for the tabletop gaming community.
“I have huge respect for what Richard and Tony have built over the years, and I’m looking forward to working alongside them over the coming events.
“This will be a gradual transition, giving us plenty of time to share knowledge, ideas and experience. My aim is to build on the fantastic foundations already in place while helping UKGE continue to grow and thrive for many years to come.”
Denning and Hyams launched UK Games Expo at Birmingham’s Clarendon Suites in 2007, when the convention attracted about 1,000 visitors.
It moved to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre in 2013, and had grown to more than 25,000 unique attendees by 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted its run of physical events.
Its growth has accelerated since returning, with unique attendance passing 31,000 in 2023, 39,000 in 2024 and 42,000 last year, before jumping beyond 51,000 at its 20th anniversary event this summer.
Denning told BoardGameWire last year that building a world-class trade hall in the UK had been a personal ambition stretching back almost two decades, adding at the time that UKGE was “now fully on the world stage of ‘mega-cons'”.
Despite this year’s record attendance, Denning told BoardGameWire after the show that there was still room for further expansion, particularly around the roughly 500 events taking place during the convention.
The next UK Games Expo is scheduled to take place at Birmingham NEC from June 4 to June 6, 2027.
The post UK Games Expo creators prep for giant show’s future without them by bringing in AireCon co-founder Mark Cooke first appeared on .
Nebulöse Pfade und eine Auferstehung mit weitreichenden Folgen: 2026 gab es wieder dramatische Szenen auf dem EPIC EMPIRES. In Neu-Ostringen standen die Zeichen auf Aufbruch, weil eine neue Macht mit ihrem Willen die Welt formen will. Die Lager suchten derweil nach Informationen und erhielten einige unschöne Antworten...
Dieser Beitrag wurde von Andreas Schellenberg geschrieben
Games tackling subjects ranging from the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests to the 30-year holdout of Japanese WW2 soldier Hiroo Onoda have been named as finalists in this year’s Summit Award, which aims to recognise historical game designs which have attracted new players or introduced new subjects or perspectives to the hobby.
Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, Chicago ‘68, Molly House and Onoda will compete for the fifth edition of the award, which is run by the San Diego Historical Games Convention – an organisation which aims to create a diverse and supportive gaming community dedicated to playing, discussing, designing, and promoting historically-based board games.
Molly House’s nomination continues an extensive awards run for the Jo Kelly and Cole Wehrle design, which won the Complex Games category at this year’s American Tabletop Awards and was also shortlisted for the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming and best heavy strategy game at this year’s Origins Awards.
The game puts players in the roles of the gender-defying mollies of early 18th century London, attempting to build community and joy while facing persecution by the Society for the Reformation of Manners.
Chicago ‘68, designed by Yoni Goldstein and published by the Dietz Foundation, was the most-selected title during the Summit Award’s public nomination process this summer.
The game explores the protests and police response surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention, dividing players between Establishment and Demonstrator factions including the mayor’s office, Chicago Police Department, Yippies and National Mobilization Committee To End The War In Vietnam.
Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, designed by Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini and published by Ingenioso Hidalgo, uses four different battlefield maps to recreate engagements from the Napoleonic Wars in sessions lasting between 60 and 120 minutes.
The fourth finalist is Francisco “Pako” Gradaille’s Onoda, a 25-minute solo game published by Salt & Pepper Games which explores the experiences of Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda, who continued guerrilla warfare on the Philippine island of Lubang until 1974. Judges praised the unusual subject and the way the game asks players to engage with Onoda’s story and decisions.
SDHist also named two honourable mentions in this year’s awards: GMT Games’ The Bell of Treason: 1938 Munich Crisis in Czechoslovakia, designed by Petr Mojžíš, and Absurdist Productions’ Winter Rabbit, designed by William Thompson.
Winter Rabbit, which draws on traditional Cherokee animal stories and was created as a counterpoint to common colonial themes in games, was runner-up in the 2021 Zenobia Award and won the Light Strategy category at this year’s Origins Awards.
The Summit Award considers games across five criteria – ease of teaching, ease of play, uniqueness of topic, novelty of approach and effectiveness as a historical game.
Its previous winners were Fred Serval’s Red Flag Over Paris in 2022, Tory Brown’s Votes for Women in 2023, Alex Knight’s Land and Freedom in 2024 and Dave Neale and David Thompson’s War Story: Occupied France last year.
SDHist, which was launched mainly as a local wargaming group in 2015, is led by wargaming experts including Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection designer Harold Buchanan.
The organisation’s board and board of advisors selected three of this year’s finalists following the public nomination process, which put Chicago ‘68 on the shortlist.
The same groups will select the winner, which is set to be announced at the SDHist Summit convention in San Diego in November.
The post From 1968 Chicago protests to queer life in Georgian London: Summit Award continues to celebrate designs that broaden historical gaming first appeared on .
Gaming convention major PAX is doubling down on the success of its tabletop-focused Unplugged show by launching a second event in Houston, after growing the original into the second-largest tabletop gaming convention in the US after Gen Con.
PAX Unplugged Houston is set to take place at the George R Brown Convention Center from June 25 to 27 next year – marking the first expansion of the Unplugged brand since the dedicated tabletop convention debuted in Philadelphia in 2017.
Company event manager Sean Gonzalez told GamesBeat that PAX had considered several major cities while investigating the feasibility of a second Unplugged show, adding that Houston stood out based on infrastructure, demographics, data from other ReedPop events and demand from the industry.
“Most importantly though, Houston is where exhibitors wanted us to place the event,” he said.
PAX said in a separate announcement that Unplugged Houston will feature an expo floor for tabletop exhibitors alongside panels, tournaments and community events, although it is yet to reveal exhibitors, floor space, expected attendance or badge prices.
The show marks a return to Texas for the business, which previously ran PAX South in San Antonio from 2015 to 2020.
That convention featured both video games and tabletop gaming, but was discontinued after organisers said it had failed to expand during its four years, with the impact of Covid-19 ultimately delivering the final blow.
Gonzalez told GamesBeat Houston offered an opportunity to bring PAX back to the community which had attended PAX South, while giving the new event a more specific tabletop focus.
He added, “While we know that the current state of the economy impacts everyone, we are extremely confident based on the tremendous success we continue to see with the PAX events, particularly our Philadelphia PAX Unplugged, that the market will support PAX Unplugged Houston.”
PAX was launched by Penny Arcade web comic creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik in 2004 as the Penny Arcade Expo, after the pair decided they wanted a show exclusively to celebrate video gaming and game culture.
About 3,300 people attended the inaugural show, but that attendance had already soared to 58,500 by the 2008 event, leading to organiser to team up with New York Comic Con organiser ReedPop in 2009, and to launch a second con, PAX East, in 2010.
The company expanded again with PAX Australia in 2013 and the short-lived PAX South two years later, before launching the inaugural PAX Unplugged in 2017 after seeing the tabletop sections of its existing PAX conventions continue to expand.
PAX does not disclose precise attendance figures for PAX Unplugged, but says the Philadelphia event draws “tens of thousands” of visitors each year – believed to be north of the 30,000 mark. Its record 2024 show sold out all three days for the first time, filling all 528,000 sq ft of exhibition hall space with more than 350 exhibitors.
That growth puts it some way off the giant attendances of veteran North American tabletop convention Gen Con, which continued its record-breaking run this year to draw in more than 74,000 attendees.
But Pax Unplugged’s success has seen it displace long-running peer Origins as the second-largest tabletop gaming convention in the US – and its decision to launch a second event just 12 days after Origins 2027 is due to take place puts further pressure on the latter event.
Origins has been rebuilding its attendance since the pandemic, but unlike other major tabletop conventions such as Gen Con, Spiel Essen and the UK Games Expo has yet to regain its pre-Covid record of about 20,600.
The show’s attendance fell 2.5% this year to 18,700 – its first annual decline since the pandemic, although the fall came as other measures of activity at Origins remained stable or continued to grow. Exhibitor numbers increased marginally from 410 in 2025 to 413 this year, while the number of scheduled events climbed about 10% from 7,810 to more than 8,600.
PAX has not overtly positioned Houston as a competitor to Origins, but publishers weighing whether to exhibit at both now face the prospect of getting their teams and products to two major US tabletop shows within less than two weeks, alongside the associated staffing, travel, freight and booth costs.
That segment of the year also features the UK Games Expo, which has continued its meteoric growth into one of the world’s largest tabletop gaming conventions after more than 51,000 people descended on Birmingham’s NEC for the show’s 20th anniversary this year.
Badges for PAX Unplugged Houston are due to go on sale later this year, with applications for media and content creators also opening before the end of 2026.
The original PAX Unplugged returns to Philadelphia for its tenth show between December 4 and 6 this year.
The post PAX doubles down on Unplugged growth with new Houston show – just 12 days after Origins first appeared on .
Wieder ein Jahr Conquest of Mythodea, und das zweite Mal ging es auf den südlichen Kontinent Sarkan. Doch kann der zweite Großcon auf dem neuen Kontinent an den positiven Eindruck vom letzten Jahr anschließen? Wir haben das Rüstzeug gegürtet und sind den Marschbefehlen der Schlacht des letzten Glockenschlags gefolgt.
Dieser Beitrag wurde von Markus Kastell geschrieben
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