#Original catan board game professional#
#Original catan board game windows#

A year later, a PlayStation version followed, but it would take almost another decade until Catan reached a whole new dimension: the world of mobile devices.

#Original catan board game windows#

As early as 1999, the first digital version of the game hit the market and enabled users to play Catan – The First Island on Windows computers. So, the game turned into a real success story – but it wasn’t enough for its makers, Catan GmbH, to turn the analogue board game world upside down.

#Original catan board game professional#

To date, Catan has been translated into over 40 languages and sold well over 35 million copies worldwide.Ĭatan made it into the Big Bang Theory and allegedly has been played in the locker rooms of NFL and NBA professional teams… Catan went viral, and today, it’s everywhere! SETTLING DIGITAL WORLDS After ten years, there were already 8 million games sold across Germany, and it was rare to find a German who was not familiar with Catan. So, it’s not surprising that the game gained more and more of a cult status over the following years. This was a new and addictive game, with gamers being divided into two camps: ‘board gamers’ – and Catan gamers. A new fantasy world is created during each session, and players can always try out new tactics. They build settlements on the fictitious island, exchange resources with other players, thus expanding their empire and defending it with their knights. in the game, players immerse themselves in a world of their own. The coveted German ‘Game of the Year’ awardĬatan may be a board game, but it’s also so much more. In 1995, however, the entire German board game world was turned upside down, and a completely new era was ushered in: The Settlers of Catan was awarded the most renowned German game award, and the game made both its inventor, Klaus Teuber, and publisher Kosmos famous. It was the golden age of German board games. Hare and Tortoise, Scotland Yard, Enchanted Forest, Top Secret Spies – all of these could be found on our shelves. A BOARD GAME REVOLUTIONĪs a German child of the seventies, I grew up with Ravensburger board games: almost always for three to six players, in a rectangular box with the blue triangle in the corner, and often enough awarded the coveted ‘Spiel des Jahres’ (‘Game of the Year’) seal. Now, in anticipation of the game’s first digital world championship in 2021, it seems like a good time to recap the journey this game has taken – and we along with it.

When you played your first round of Settlers of Catan in the nineties, could you have imagined that the game would inspire international championships, let alone digital tournaments? For more than 10 years, Endava has been developing digital products for the famously successful board game on a myriad of different platforms.