Upcoming Releases – Fall ’18 Roundup

By Chris / October 23, 2018

This is the latest installment of our feature covering what games are currently in development and any details we know.  There haven't been many new game announcements over the past few months, but many games announced last year have had some new information come out, so we figured it was time for a giant roundup. Upcoming Releases are an inexact science as often publishers or developers don’t officially announce a game until shortly before its release. Sometimes when the news does get out earlier, the details are scarce, if not completely non-existent.  Be sure to check out our upcoming game database for a quick overview of games currently in development.  Click on the images to purchase the board games. 

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Cat Lady

Platform

Android & iOS

Release Date

Soon?

Developer

Nomad Games

Cat Lady is the first game in the partnership between AEG and Nomad Games.  Nomad has one of the most eclectic catalogs in the business.  Their biggest titles are based around Talisman and a few spin-offs.  They got into a bit lighter fare with Smash Up last year and are continuing that trend with Cat Lady.  The big news about Cat Lady is that it is actually out in certain parts of the world, just not the US, Canada, U.K, or many others.  The news leaked on Reddit and the game designer chimed in with a very vague statement about hoping fans are happy soon.  That the game is ready for release anywhere at all suggests a global release is imminent, but we don't have an exact date at this point.  


Terraforming Mars

Platform

Android, iOS & Steam

Release Date

2018

Developer

Lucky Hammers

Getting right to the point;  Terraforming Mars is out now on Steam, as in full release.  The press release for the Steam version says to expect the Android and iOS versions to hit later this year, which is fantastic news.  With the long rollout of Lord of the Rings, and the drop of Scythe to Steam with no concrete details on the mobile versions, it was easy to be skeptical of Asmodee's treatment of mobile platforms in 2018.  Thankfully, it appears the most anticipated of the bunch will hit your phones and tablets this year.  On a less exciting note, the Steam game was met with decidedly mixed reviews with a combination of missing features and bugs.  Within a few days of release, the developer addressed many of the issues, released a major bug fix patch, and announced the roadmap going forward.  It is always nice to see that kind of response, and we expect the digital version of this AAA board game title will be well looked after going forward.


Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game

Platform

Steam, Android and iOS

Release Date

2019 (?)

Developer

Fantasy Flight Interactive

Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game has been in Steam Early Access for quite a while now.  Fantasy Flight decided to make some fairly drastic changes to the game as opposed to providing a direct port of the popular board game.  Many of these changes revolved around the economy of the game; how players would purchase the game and its add-ons.  Initially, and still currently at the time of this writing, the game was to be freemium, with extra heroes and missions unlockable with in-game currency (which could be purchased with real currency, of course).  However, a recent in-depth post revealed they were ditching this plan.  They are moving the game closer towards the model of the physical game; buy the core, then buy add-on expansions as you'd like.  This is an interesting change of direction for the game, to say the least.  It will put the game in territory more familiar to fans of other ports.  The game play changes the digital version introduced don't appear to be changing.  We don't have a great idea when the final version will be released, but it will definitely be out on Steam first and hopefully it hits mobile devices sometime next year.


Gloomhaven

Platform

Steam

Release Date

Q1 2019

Developer

Flaming Fowl Studios

Ho-hum, not much to see here, just the #1 rated board game of all time hitting digital within two years of its physical release.  The speed at which games are getting turned around into digital adaptations is increasing and that should be very exciting for fans.  The downside to this one is that the port looks to be rather graphically intensive, it's not at a AAA video game title level or anything, but it appears to be something that probably isn't destined to hit your phone anytime soon, if at all.  We have no advanced knowledge on this, so we hope we are wrong on this one.


Asmodee Digital - The Rest

Platform

Android & iOS

Release Date

Q4 2018 ​​​​

Developer

Asmodee Digital

Asmodee hasn't actually released many mobile games this year.  King & Assassins and Onitama are the only two under their name (well, Isle of Skye technically is, but that's a Digidiced game through and through).  If everything remains on track, that should change rapidly over the next few months.  In addition to Terraforming Mars, according to their GenCon update, Asmodee is slated to release the following this calendar year;  Bang!, Gloom (not to be confused with Gloomhaven, which is coming next year), and Five Tribes.  As per Asmodee tradition, those games run the gamut in  many ways, color us most excited about Five Tribes, but we look forward to all three.  

On a different note, the Zombicide app, which was originally announced at GenCon 2017, has been nowhere to be found so far.  We can't find any additional information past the initial announcement, we're as clueless as anybody on this one.  


Evolution - The Video Game

Platform

Android & iOS

Release Date

2019

Developer

North Star Digital

Evolution has had a weird history in digital form.  They ran a very successful Kickstarter over a year ago with an expected release date of Spring '18.  Well, that ship has clearly sailed.  We don't know the details, but we know they went dark for a while this Spring/Summer, but have come back recently and everything appears to be on a great track to eventual release.  They are taking their time with this one, keeping the backers in the loop and updated with new game modes and fixes, presumably getting a lot of feedback in the process.  The game won't be out until 2019, but with all of the attention North Star Digital has given this one, we expect it will be a great port when it does land.  (and they requested beta players don't discuss details, but we will say that we like what we've seen so far)


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