Where can I find the most reliable information on upcoming boardgame releases?

Question

Usually I just troll my FLGS to see what new has popped up and that works for me. However, right now I have a pressing need to figure out what games have been recently released, and which will be released very soon.

Now I can (and have done) some Google searches to try to figure this out. I'm not looking for answers with barebones information like that. What I'd really like is to hear from people who have been keeping a better eye on game release cycles for a while.

What sites or sources of material have you found to be truly reliable? I'm particularly interested in shorter lists of popular hobby games. I don't have a need to hear about new Monopoly expansions or tracking down every Indy game release.

Answer 1

Boardgamegeek has a section where you can look at games released within the last 1/3/6 months, as well as unreleased games based on their expected release. It then lets you sort these by number of people with it on their wishlist, which should give you an idea of how popular they are.

Answer 2

The most reliable data is usually to troll the various publishers' websites. For a singular point of information, it varies by game type.

Miniatures Games: The Miniatures Page

For Board Games and Card Games: Board Game Geek, especially the Recent Releases page.

Somewhat less reliable: online game retailer websites, such as Boards & Bits, Thoughthammer or Troll and Toad. In general, I've found these sites to have excellent notes on upcoming releases. Moreover, many of them have notification services for registered customers. Most list items once they've been solicited for them and submitted an order; if the order is late, they will often pass along information on revised due dates.

Another source, albeit one that's even more unreliable, is Kickstarter.com. Search for games on KS, and you'll find out about a lot of forthcoming games... but many of those, you'll need to preorder using KS in order to get them at all.

The least reliable, in my experience, has been Amazon.com. I've had items in hand from my FLGS that Amazon says have been either canceled or delayed for several months past the date I bought the item.

Answer 3

The new releases section in the Internationale Spieltage is also a very important resource to consider. Basically, if it's not there, it's not going to be available soon.