Last modified December 7, 2025 by Krushpin

When I started my gaming career about 20 years ago, expansions were rare and a real bonus! When an expansion was announced, I was genuinely eager to see what the designer had come up with as additional content. Now, most of the time, I just sigh and become cynical. The expansion "industry" has become vicious and is savagely profiting from our addiction to games. And my sympathies to those who are completionists by nature. I know that, like any capitalist company, the goal is to make money off consumers, but it's increasingly bordering on the ridiculous.

It's not so much the opportunistic marketing that bothers me, but the industry's lack of awareness about it. It feels like blatant re-evaluation when I open a game and find only a bare skeleton in the box. The real substance will come out later…

Here's what turns me off when an expansion comes out:

• Expansions are planned well in advance, often even before the base game is released. Furthermore, when the game box insert already has compartments for future expansions, it's not very subtle.
• Mechanics originally included in the base game are extracted and converted into "expansions." This results in a base game that often lacks substance and expansions that are necessary for a complete gaming experience. A whole is fragmented into several parts that shouldn't be distinct. This becomes apparent very quickly. It's so obvious that you can practically predict what the expansions will add in the future.
• $5 deals for 2-3 additional cards. Sure, $5 isn't the end of the world. However, if those few cards represent 3% new content, all things considered, the buyer is getting ripped off!
• We're starting to see more and more mini-expansions like 10 cards for $10 (Zenith and Combo Castle, I'm looking at you). It's a hybrid between a sale and a real expansion, but at an exorbitant price for the minimal added value it provides.
• A big box for almost no content, just for show, and with a price tag that follows the same proportions as the box.

The "deluxe" versions, in general. It might not be an expansion per se, but the principle is the same: asking for an exorbitant amount of money knowing full well that we, the poor victims, will succumb. It becomes ridiculous: an empty but larger box (to accommodate the 34 expansions), oversized cards, added components for a 57th player, a revision of the theme/artwork to avoid offending sensitive souls, etc. For older classics whose components haven't aged well (Castles of Burgundy, for example), I can understand the rationale. But when they give a complete makeover to games that never really generated any lasting buzz to begin with, or for which there's not much to deluxe, it breaks my heart (Yokohama, That's Pretty Clever, Tokaido, etc.).

The worst part is when there are multiple deluxe tiers, typical of crowdfunding campaigns. It gives the impression of offering choice, but we all know it's either all in or all out. We rarely settle for something in between. It's also not easy to navigate all these different pledge levels, with all the possible add-ons and exclusive promotions (which are often only exclusive for the duration of the campaign, too). What we do know for sure is that we've just lost an arm and a leg in small increments of $10, $24,95, international shipping, and customs fees.

Final word

As you can probably tell, I'm getting fed up with being milked dry by a marketing model that exploits its consumers. Yet, I still love the hobby, but I'm becoming increasingly selective in my purchases. At some point, the tension just reaches its breaking point…