Klaus Teuber’s Catan, broadly credited with kicking off the trendy board gaming renaissance, turns 30 years previous this 12 months. To have a good time, Catan — the worldwide firm behind the beloved tabletop model — is refreshing the appear and feel of the traditional title for the primary time in a decade with a revised sixth version launching in April, 2025. New, revised expansions and extensions are additionally at present in manufacturing for launch. Polygon sat down with managing director Benjamin Teuber, son of the unique recreation’s late designer, to debate the upcoming launch.
Catan tells a narrative about Vikings colonizing islands lengthy earlier than the daybreak of recent Europe, asking gamers to make their means in its fictional world by buying and selling assets like wooden, grain, and sheep. The sport’s reputation straight contributed to altering American tastes for board video games. Right now, home audiences have a robust choice for these so-called “Euro-style” board video games, which like Catan eschew direct battle and as an alternative favor a collaborative fashion of gameplay with extra restricted randomness and dice-rolling.
Benjamin Teuber advised Polygon that even he’s frequently stunned by the impression his father had on the business.
“It modified a lot of how [board] gaming is perceived,” he mentioned in a latest video name, “and the way you carry individuals to the desk.”
Ten years in the past Catan modified its identify, dropping “The Settlers of” preamble and placing the island’s identify up entrance. This time across the greatest change by far is the brand new field artwork, which includes a brighter and extra naturalistic expression of the Catan universe — full with hex-shaped fields within the background, which straight mirror the look of the sport on the desk. There’s additionally a really heartfelt Easter egg embedded within the cowl of the bottom recreation — a tiny Klaus Teuber driving a cart filled with wheat up the lane.
Tile artwork has additionally been up to date and the parts, like roads and buildings, are a hair bigger whereas a useful plastic pack-in makes drawing playing cards simpler. Nonetheless, for current followers, Catan ought to look and play very very similar to it has up to now. Importantly, it can additionally stay appropriate with current expansions so followers might be assured of cross compatibility with the dietary supplements they already personal.
Benjamin Teuber mentioned that he hopes the sport’s attraction extends properly into the subsequent three many years.
“My private opinion is that one of the best ways to make a recreation recognized is to play it and to make individuals play it,” he mentioned. “I feel there are some things which you simply should do these days, that are an excellent video tutorial of explaining the sport, giving easy accessibility to the sport, perhaps an excellent app to show the sport. However then it is advisable to make individuals simply expertise it.”
Catan, alongside Catan: Cities and Knights and Catan: Seafarers expansions, will likely be accessible globally within the sixth version starting April 4, 2025 alongside their five- and six-player extensions.