Insiders call them “kidultes”, a contraction of “kid” (child in English) and adult. Gamers don’t like this term. “We prefer to be named players,” the fans questioned answered in unison.
«It is an Anglo-Saxon term, but even some brands do not appreciate it, defends Frédérique Tutte, vice president of the NPD group, expert panelist on the global toy market. For my part, I find that it designates the concept and image of the player very well. »
“The one who can spend 15 hours building a Lego, the one who will spend hours playing Dungeons and Dragons, or the one who, with patience, will complete his own puzzle.”
Federico All (NPD Group VP, Global Toy Market Expert Member)
Adults play a variety of games.Game nights are also organized in Gellainville, at Ludivers. Photo: Thomas Desprez.
Bruno Martinez, manager of La cave de briques, a Chartrain store specializing in Lego, analyses: “Brands have understood that there is an adult target. They have revised their packaging. They offer adult Legos for decoration, like this year with an Eiffel Tower. They have been offering plant boxes for a few years. There are also the big licenses, with Star Wars in particular. This attracts collector customers. »
Rebuild link
“I assume I’m still a big boy,” speculates Playmobil collector Benoît Sevestre, who has nearly 20,000 stickers at home.
“I never stopped playing,” says 50-year veteran David Kammer. The complexity of board games for adults means that they are not games for children. This Eurélien joins, almost every Friday evening, the Chartres association Les Gargouilles ludophiles, of which he is a member, to play in a group.
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“It is a real pleasure to be together. That’s the fun: compete against other people and play. It’s interesting when you don’t know them. We are a fundamental generation that experienced the first computers and the first video games. »
David Kammer
For Fabrice Creze, another board game enthusiast, the important thing is spending time together. “It’s important to reconnect, play together and live together. ” David Kammer adds: “It allows you to step out of the ambient darkness, think about something else and enjoy yourself. It’s nice to get together with friends or strangers. »
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Conviviality is also what Maëlys Sautel likes: “With my friends we enjoy a lot, it passes the time and above all it allows us to have an activity by spending time together”, confides this board game buyer, who once goes a month to Ludivers, in Gellainville, to play there and buy games for her and her loved ones.
Some players spend between 5 and 10 hours playing each week. “I don’t play every day, but I can spend an entire evening playing from 8pm to 1am. It’s the weekend we play the most,” says David Kammer.
Fabrice Crézé explains: “To find out what’s new, to get information and feedback on certain games, I regularly attend the shows. About six or seven times a year, I go to Orléans, Tours or Paris in this context. But I still favor local merchants for my purchases from L’Antre du Blup in Chartres or from Ludivers in Gellainville. »
Extensions and news
“At the level we play, we cannot say that board games are intended for children,” confirms Maëlys Sautel, a 27-year-old gamer. Board game publishers get it.
“The world leader in games does not have a children’s range. For their trading card games, like Pokemon, we have tournaments where over 90% of the players are adults. The rules are very advanced. It is tactically very difficult when you come across new maps. »
Maelys Sautel (player)
It is therefore necessary for producers to address this demanding clientele, with rules that are both simple to use for short games and games with more elaborate rules for those who prefer to play for a few hours. “Parts of Terraforming Mars (note: where we have to make the planet Mars a livable world for humans) can last more than two hours,” says another game enthusiast.
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To keep their followers, producers have an almost common strategy. Extensions and news.
In numbers:
- 22 million the board game boxes were sold in France in 2021, the first European market for this sector.
- 9 million toy boxes were sold to adults in 2021.
- 27% of the turnover in the global toy market was achieved thanks to “kidults”, in 2021, in France. This is a sum of 1.2 billion euros. This represents a 28% growth since 2019.
- 28% board games were sold to “kidults”.
- 65% of Playmobil’s turnover is achieved during the Christmas period.
Thomas Desprez
thomas.desprez@centrefrance.com
