Quiet enough Tuesday but there are a few things worth knowing about heading into July.
Splendor Duel: The Counterfeiters drops this Thursday. The first expansion for what’s become one of the best two-player games in the hobby lands on July 3rd. It adds Glassware tokens, Counterfeiter cards, and new Royal cards. Small box, $12.99, and it sounds like it tightens up decisions rather than bloating things. If you play Splendor Duel regularly — and a lot of us at Knavecon do — this is a day-one pickup. Asmodee store listing
Essen is fully sold out for exhibitors. SPIEL 2026 (October 22–25) has booked every square metre of exhibition space and opened a waiting list. They’ve named Peter Mohrbacher as this year’s ambassador, which is a good pick — his art is stunning. Tickets aren’t on sale yet but they’ll go live over the summer. Three of four days sold out last year, so don’t be slow if you’re planning a trip. spiel-essen.de
The Diana Jones Award finalists are out and it’s a strong list: Molly House (Cole Wehrle/Wehrlegig), Trench Crusade, Price Johnson from Cephalofair, Rob Wieland, and Mischief Toy Store in Minnesota. Molly House getting a nod here is interesting — it’s a genuinely unusual game and exactly the kind of thing this award tends to champion. Winner announced July 29th at Gen Con. dianajonesaward.org
Concordia Special Edition on Gamefound has crossed €2 million. The Awaken Realms deluxe treatment of Mac Gerdts’ classic launched June 9th and is doing very well. They had to publicly commit to no AI art after BGG review-bombing earlier this year, and they’ve named all 32 people on their art team. If you love Concordia and want the premium components, it’s there. If your existing copy works fine, it still works fine. Gamefound campaign — and the AI art controversy was covered well by BoardGameWire.
Asmodee’s numbers tell a story. Their annual revenue hit €1.68 billion but more than 72% of that is now distribution of other companies’ games. Their own board game publishing sales fell nearly 6% year-on-year, and Q1 2026 is down almost 10% against the same period last year. Asmodee’s CEO was asked directly whether they’re still a publisher or an infrastructure company. That’s a fair question. BoardGameWire report
Worth watching: Stonespine Architects: Invasion is running on Kickstarter with a base game reprint — ends July 8th. Aeon’s End: System Overload is live on Gamefound if you’re into cooperative deckbuilding. And Gen Con is exactly a month away (July 30 – August 2) so expect announcements to start ramping up.
Ireland corner. The Irish Gaming Market Summer Edition is on July 11–12 at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire. It’s more video game and TCG focused than tabletop, but it’s a gaming event and it’s nearby-ish. Gaelcon 38 runs October 23–26 in Dublin — same venue as last year at Crowne Plaza Airport — and weekend supporter tickets are already on sale at €40. Over in Dublin, Board & Brewed in Dún Laoghaire and Board Dublin are both running regular game nights. Sadly Tabletop Cork remains closed. There’s a healthy Meetup scene in Dublin with groups like the Rush Board Game Meetup and weekly sessions in D8, Celbridge, and at the Marlin Hotel. Limerick’s quieter on the public events front right now — if you know of anything running locally, let us know and we’ll share it. Eventbrite Ireland gaming | Meetup tabletop Ireland
For the Knavecon community: Splendor Duel is one of the most-played games at our events. If The Counterfeiters is as good as the base game, we should have copies in the library for Knavecon 29. Worth grabbing one this weekend if you want to try it early.
One for the socials: “Asmodee made €1.68 billion last year but nearly three quarters of it was distributing other people’s games. Their own publishing arm is shrinking. At what point do we stop calling them a board game publisher?”
Victor Gannon Games 
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