October 19, 2021 – Popular online gaming platform Board Game Arena to raise prices in November 2021. Most of the games will remain free, that is not changing. What is changing is the cost of premium subscriptions on BGA, both monthly and yearly. If you are a current premium membership holder, you are locked into your current pricing as long as you maintain your subscription.
Sign up for premium membership here
If you are not, prices are going to increase from 4 euros per month to 5 euros per month or 24 euros per year to 30 euros per year. The interesting thing is the euro prices and US dollar price are now billed the same, so monthly is now $5 or €5 and yearly is now $30 or €30.
When massive game publisher Asmodee bought Board Game Arena, many speculated that the first thing to change would be a price increase. Most people probably are looking at this increase now and thinking that very thing, but honestly, they make a pretty good case for this slight increase and their behemoth owner is mentioned nowhere by name.
SEE ALSO: Asmodee Explores Sale of Company for 2 Billion Euros
Board Game Arena does actually address the Asmodee elephant in the room head on at the end of the news post without actually mentioning them:
“We did not increase our price over the past 5 years, while multiplying by 20 the number of Premium games, so we have had to be thinking about the prices for awhile. Long before any acquisition. But to answer the question directly: this price increase has been decided by the BGA team, on our own initiative, and not by our shareholder.“
The header image says it all, this has been the writing on the wall for a long time. They are justifying their decision with several different factors:
- They have added an unprecedented 136 games to the service since January 1st Including Agricola, Splendor, Castles of Burgundy or more recently, King of Tokyo.
- They have expanded their team to make the service more reliable and more professional, and able to bring you “some nice updates in the next months.”
- Having this type of membership is what allows the service to grow, and hey, “a vast majority of games on Board Game Arena are free.”
- They have not increased their subscription prices in years (since 2016), but the time has come to adjust them in order to the extended catalogue and services that BGA now offers.
It was nice enough of Board Game Arena to give you a little lead time on their price increase news. You can still lock in your price now and keep it forever. Given their offerings and their justifications, people probably shouldn’t get mad at this news but thank Board Game Arena for the heads up and the service they provide. Think about the hours of fun and entertainment you have available to you for $2.50 per month.
Source: Board Game Arena News
