The Growing Market for Card and Communication Games and a New Company Creating Games Based on Books and Films about Social Issues
Despite the huge popular interest in video and digital games for the phone, the market for card and communication games has experienced significant growth in recent years, driven by increasing consumer interest in traditional tabletop formats and digital platforms.
The numbers are huge. The U.S. card games market is expected to reach $423.7 million in revenue by 2024, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 8.27%, leading to a projected market volume of $630.3 million by 2029. In 2021, the global card game market generated approximately $6.6 billion in revenue. Projections indicate that this figure will surpass $8 billion by 2026, reflecting a robust annual growth rate.
Now a new company, ALB Games, specializing in card and communication games, which are based on books on social and criminal justice issues and films based on those books, has joined this growing market. Its latest games include Scamalot, based on the book The Big Con about dozens of victims swindled by a book-to-film scam, and I Was Scammed, featuring victims of several dozen scams and how to avoid them, The books were turned into the films Conned: A True Story and Con Artists Unveiled. Another game is Life Behind Bars, inspired by the books: Women with Partners in Prison and Women in Prison, which were turned into the film Love Behind Bars.
ALB Games has a unique approach to publishing games. Rather than putting the game in a box which is more expensive for customers, it publishes these games in a book. Players print or paste the cards on heavy stock paper to form a card deck of about 150 cards which feature different activities for playing the game.
The books were published by American Leadership Books, a sister company to ALB Games, and the films based on these books were produced by Changemakers Productions and Dark Genie Productions. Plus coming soon, inspired by these books, films, and games, are recordings of songs about scams and prisons.
Through these various channels, ALB Games is working with a consortium of companies to increase the awareness of social issues, from scams to prison life and politics, using a combination of books, films, games, songs, and other mediums.
As for who is playing these games, approximately 23% of adults enjoy playing board games or cards, with participation highest among adults aged 18–34 (44%), followed by those aged 35–54 (41%).
Thus, in targeting this particular niche for card and communication games, ALB Games is joining forces with several companies to become one of the biggest companies in the card and communication games market, which includes the following household names:
- Hasbro: Known for classic games like Monopoly and Scrabble.
- Mattel: Producer of the iconic card game Uno.
- Goliath B.V.: Known for games like Sequence and Rummikub.
- Asmodee Editions: A leading publisher of popular titles such as Catan and Ticket to Ride.
- Ravensburger: Recognized for games like Labyrinth and various puzzles.
I was inspired to create the games after writing a half-dozen books on scams, prisons, and other crimes for American Leadership Books, and then developing three documentaries about scams and prisoners. I wrote my first book on scams after working as a ghostwriter writing scripts and pitch materials for a publishing company’s clients who hoped to turn their books into films and discovering that the company was scamming its authors by creating a phony CEO from a real company offering a big deal, so the client would pay more and more for writing and a marketing campaign. But the deal wasn’t real. After that, the company’s scam led me to write about the victims’ stories in The Big Con, which was turned into a documentary Conned: A True Story, and later I wrote more books about scams that were turned into films, most notably I Was Scammed that became Con Artists Unveiled.
All of the games, books, and films are available on Amazon and other platforms. For more information and to set up interviews, email or call:
Karen Andrews
Executive Assistant
Changemakers Publishing and Writing
San Ramon, CA 94583
(925) 804–6333
Changemakerspub@att.net
www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com
*********
Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. is the author of over 50 books with major publishers and has published 200 books through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing (http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com). She writes books, proposals, and film scripts for clients, and has written and produced 18 feature films and documentaries, including Conned: A True Story and Con Artists Unveiled¸ distributed by Gravitas Ventures. (http://www.changemakersproductionsfilms.com). Her latest books include Ghost Story and How to Find and Work with a Good Ghostwriter published by Waterside Productions; and The Big Con and I Was Scammed, published by American Leadership Press.