Klaus Teuber’s Catan, extensively credited with kicking off the fashionable board gaming renaissance, turns 30 years previous this 12 months. To rejoice, 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 contemporary Europe, asking gamers to make their approach in its fictional world by buying and selling sources like wooden, grain, and sheep. The sport’s reputation instantly contributed to altering American tastes for board video games. At present, home audiences have a robust choice for these so-called “Euro-style” board video games, which like Catan eschew direct battle and as a substitute favor a collaborative model of gameplay with extra restricted randomness and dice-rolling.
Benjamin Teuber instructed Polygon that even he’s frequently stunned by the affect his father had on the trade.
“It modified a lot of how [board] gaming is perceived,” he mentioned in a current video name, “and the way you convey folks to the desk.”
Ten years in the past Catan modified its title, dropping “The Settlers of” preamble and placing the island’s title 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 instantly 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 stuffed with wheat up the lane.
Tile artwork has additionally been up to date and the elements, 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 would additionally stay suitable 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 enchantment extends nicely into the following three a long time.
“My private opinion is that one of the simplest ways to make a recreation recognized is to play it and to make folks play it,” he mentioned. “I believe there are some things which you simply must do these days, that are a superb video tutorial of explaining the sport, giving easy accessibility to the sport, possibly a superb app to show the sport. However then you have to make folks simply expertise it.”
Catan, alongside Catan: Cities and Knights and Catan: Seafarers expansions, can be accessible globally within the sixth version starting April 4, 2025 alongside their five- and six-player extensions.
