Co-operative puzzle challenge game Take Time has doubled down on its award wins this year by picking up the Austrian game of the year prize.

Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière’s design fought off competition from Florian Maas’ citybuilding game Project Skyline and Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva’s Railroad Ink sequel Railroad Tiles to take the 2026 Spiel der Spiele award.

The win comes three months after Take Time triumphed in this year’s Swiss Gamers Award, while the game has also picked up a ‘recommended’ nod in the highly prized 2026 Spiel des Jahres competition.

Take Time publisher Libellud previously won the Austrian game prize’s family game award for Dixit in 2010, while the title’s co-designer Julien Prothière won the family game category with Featherweight Fiesta in 2024, and the ‘friends game of the year’ award with March of the Crabs the same year.

The Austrian Game Academy, which runs the Spiel der Spiele award each year, picked out Jon Perry’s Hot Streak as the winner of its ‘friends game of the year’ prize this year, while the expert game award went to Saltfjord, designed by Kristian Amundsen Østby and Eilif Svensson.

Hot Streak has been on a run of award wins this year, with the chaotic mascot racing game having picked up best party game and light game of the year in BoardGameGeek’s Golden Geek Awards, casual game of the year in the American Tabletop Awards, and a ‘recommended’ accolade in the Spiel des Jahres.

Markus Slawitscheck’s design Morty Sorty Magic Shop – which is in the running for this year’s Spiel des Jahres prize – was named best family game in the Austrian awards, while Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero’s creation Duel for Cardia was named best card game.

Boss Fighters QR, by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach, was named ‘trend’ game of the year for its innovative use of QR codes in-game, while the 2026 best kids game prize went to Emanuele Briano’s Beast Selfie.

Austria’s Spiel der Spiele has been handed out since 2001, when it was won by Catan designer Klaus Teuber’s colonisation game Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons – a reworking of his 1996 design Entdecker.

Last year’s overall winner was galactic gardening-themed set collection game Gloomies.

The 2026 Spiel der Spiele Awards in full

Game of the Year
Take Time – designed by Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière (published by Libellud)

Children’s Game
Beast Selfie – Emanuele Briano (HUCH!)

Family Game
Morty Sorty Magic Shop – Markus Slawitscheck (Schmidt Spiele)

‘Friends’ Game
Hot Steak – Jon Perry (Strohmann Games)

Expert Game
Saltfjord – Kristian Amundsen Østby and Eilif Svensson (HUCH!)

Card Game
Duel for Cardia – Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero (Hans im Glück)

‘Trend’ Game
Boss Fighters QR – Michael Palm and Lukas Zach (Pegasus Spiele)

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Entertainment website The AV Club has shuttered its board game and video games segment, bringing to an end almost 13 years of tabletop coverage for veteran writer Keith Law across the site and its predecessors, Paste Games and Endless Mode.

Law wrote more than 300 pieces across those sites following his debut article in 2013, helping bring modern board gaming to a wider audience through his reviews, opinion pieces and highly regarded ‘games of the year’ lists.

Speaking to BoardGameWire, Law said the shuttering had come as a shock, adding that he would continue to write about board games on his personal blog.

He said, “It’s been an honor and a privilege to write about board games and the tabletop space for the last 12 years for Paste, Endless Mode, and AV Club.

“I worked with some great people, notably my longtime editor Garrett Martin, and feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to write so much about one of my passions.”

The loss of Law’s writing from such a well-read entertainment site was bemoaned by Votes for Women designer Tory Brown, who cited his rave review of that title as “a high water mark in the effort to bring my game to the masses.”

She told BoardGameWire, “Keith Law is a treasure, the kind of smart and thoughtful writer whose approach to criticism makes us all smarter and more thoughtful.

“That a media outlet failed to recognize the value of his contribution says more about the lack of vision in American journalism than the board game audience or industry.”

The shuttering of the AV Club tabletop section marks the latest in a string of high-profile gaming and entertainment sites closing or shrinking their tabletop coverage in recent years.

They include major video games site Kotaku, which has not published an article to its tabletop section since veteran writer and editor Luke Plunkett left in 2023, and Polygon, which lost renowned, long-serving tabletop editor Charlie Hall as part of a downsizing 12 months ago.

While Polygon’s tabletop section still exists, the segment’s focus has shifted heavily towards coverage of trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon.

Of the 61 articles in tabletop section last month, just three were about board games – one a story highlighting that Star Wars: Outer Rim was being discounted at Amazon, and two about the Game Changer Kickstarter from comedy team Dropout.

Kevin Bertram, the founder of Votes for Women publisher Fort Circle Games, told BoardGameWire, “While I appreciate the contributions of many YouTube reviewers, video cannot fully replace the depth and clarity of written criticism.

“The loss of voices like Charlie Hall (of Polygon) and now Keith Law marks a deeply troubling turn for our industry.

“Board game journalism faces a structural challenge: establishing a sustainable business model that supports rigorous, long-form analysis. Perhaps that future lies with independent critics like Dan Thurot or collaborative models such as Rascal.

“Whatever forms emerge, their success will depend on active support from a community that values thoughtful, written criticism.”

AV Club editor-in-chief Danette Chavez provided a statement to BoardGameWire which said, “The AV Club made the difficult decision to eliminate three roles, which included two full-time staff who ran our video games coverage after joining us from Endless Mode in November 2025.

“This also includes changing the direction of our television coverage. Our hope is this will allow The AV Club to focus on our core strengths: incisive coverage of film and TV through reviews, features, and news. 

“We will continue to have some games coverage, but we cannot sustain a full-time staff covering it with our smaller team. All previously published games stories will remain available to read.” 

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