Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne offers up his thoughts on the GAMA Expo 2026 exhibit hall.
It has been several years since I attended a GAMA Expo, so I was looking forward to seeing what had changed in the exhibit hall (see “Three and A Half Questions Answered“). Here are a few trends that I noticed at the show:
Trading Card Games. The success of Pokémon over the last few years has sparked a resurgence of interest in trading card games, not as strong as in the mid-1990s but equivalent to that of the early 00s. Besides the big three, I counted at least half a dozen other tables and booths. Certainly, the most unusual entrant into the market was Solis Game Studio’s Hot Brown Surprise TCG, in which players collect ingredients to make the best Hot Brown, Louisville’s signature sandwich. Probably the release attracting the most attention, and certainly the one with the most eye-catching booth, was Hellbreak from Spin Master and Ghost Galaxy. In this game, players pit monsters and creatures from Universal Studios film library against one another; the demo kit featured Count Dracula against the shark from Jaws.
Card Sorting Machines. At least three vendors offered card sorting machines for TCGs, designed to sift through large collections. Given the $8,000 lease-to-own cost of at least one of the units as well as the ongoing subscription fee to keep the software updated, I see these as mostly useful for stores processing bulk quantities of cards and those stores with TCG singles sales as a large part of their business model; the number of companies offering them indicates an expectation the market for singles will continue to expand.
Gundam Assemble. This was probably the most anticipated game at the show as lines to get into the booth for a demo of the game were long on both Tuesday and Wednesday, though they dropped off drastically by Thursday (see “Bandai Unveils ‘Gundam Assemble’ Initial SKUs“). Given the popularity of Gundam/Gunpla models, I can see why customers and stores are excited about this release. From what I saw, this game and Hellbreak attracted the most attention during the show.
Premium Accessories. Several vendors offered high-end dice sets, carrying cases, GM screens and deck boxes as well as digital accessories to simplify the record-keeping during the game. Game Toppers showed off their premium game tables and an affiliate program, allowing stores to display a sample table and receive a percentage of the sale if/when one sells. Paw-lymorph showed off their line of fantasy-themed cat and dog toys, indicating just how much RPGs have penetrated mainstream culture and how many people in the industry have dogs and cats.
Comments? What did you see there that struck you? Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Source: ICV2
