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| Spiel | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Spiel 2008 | |
| Genre | Board game trade fair |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Venue | Messe Essen |
| Country | Germany |
| Inaugurated | 1983 |
| Attendance | 204,000 (2024) |
| Website | www |
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day public boardgame trade fair held in October[1] (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983.[2] With 1,021 exhibitors from 50 nations in 2016, SPIEL is the biggest fair for board games in the world.[3] Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.
At SPIEL, board games that are often hard to find in retail are offered by international and small exhibitors. While the prices for buying these games at the fair do not tend to be significantly lower than in retail, games are typically available sooner than in regular board game shops and may come with promotional materials (mostly extra cards or tokens with a few more game mechanics, but also T-shirts and similar merchandise). SPIEL also provides an environment for board gamers to meet and chat with game designers, illustrators, and game reviewers.[citation needed]
- ^ "Not twilight, but sunrise. Table-top games are booming in the video-game age". The Economist. 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ^ Stewart Woods (2012-08-16). Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games. McFarland. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7864-6797-6.
- ^ Duffy, Owen (2015-10-31). "For board gamers, heaven is a place on earth – located in Germany". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-11-11.