Wirtschaftsforum: Despite digitalization, the market for board games remains stable and even saw growth last year. Are you still afraid of digital competition from PlayStation or Nintendo? Hermann Hutter: The game market has grown by more than 40% over the past five years, which shows that playing together can increase its popularity. Electronic games are mostly played alone, whereas board games are naturally played with family and friends. This market is therefore developing with its strengths independently of digital games and consoles. The party game segment, in particular, has grown significantly. The winner of the year at our publishing house is "What do you Meme?". Especially young people have become very interested in games in recent years, which they used to find boring, but those days are over. It is popular on a game night to cook together and play as well. Wirtschaftsforum: What is the most beautiful and special thing about board games? Hermann Hutter: Being together is important, it creates a community. Someone who plays a game on their phone is not playing with others and cannot get to know anyone better. Of course, everyone is motivated to win the game for themselves, but many games encourage communication, especially party games. The game can initiate conversation topics and create dialogue.

Wirtschaftsforum: Entrepreneurs and trade show visitors discuss the sense and nonsense of trade shows. For example, what benefits do you see in participating in the SPIEL gaming fair in Essen? Hermann Hutter: The fair first brings everyone to one place – authors, publishers, trade, journalists, and players from all over the world. This creates a certain dynamic that makes the theme of gaming tangible and excites people on-site. Here you can feel how enthusiastic the players are and see the diversity of ideas. The visitor numbers for the fair, which once started in a gymnasium, now stand at around 200,000 visitors. This speaks for itself why all people come here with great interest. Especially games with rather extensive rule books are becoming more popular, the target group being 20-40-year-old game fans who were also present at the fair this year. Wirtschaftsforum: In recent years, escape rooms have become a real hype as team-building activity. Can team building also be designed on the game board? Hermann Hutter: The escape games are part of cooperative games and are very popular. In cooperative games, you play together against something which promotes the team spirit. With unusual gaming materials and creative ideas, games can create an exciting atmosphere and the entire team can work on success.

Wirtschaftsforum: Which game would you recommend to managers and business partners to get to know each other better? Hermann Hutter: I particularly recommend cooperative games that make it possible to achieve goals together. However, I also recommend competitive games from time to time, so that one also learns to lose and to deal fairly with others. Management topics can be presented in a more playful way than information on PowerPoint slides. It's hard to name a very specific example. But the Exit game 'Bank Alarm' comes to mind spontaneously. In this game, the team must crack a safe. Only if the team works together and functions in this stressful situation can a goal be jointly achieved. Interview: Vera Gaidies | Photos: Hutter Trade GmbH & Co. KG