There's a Catan version of the Exit board game coming, for which I am both excited and bemused

Who knew there was such a massive crossover between the Catan fandom, and escape room likers? Yeah, a Catan version of EXIT: The Game just landed in my inbox and I'm as much perplexed as I am excited for the upcoming release.

As part of Catan's 30th anniversary celebrations, Thames & Kosmos is bringing us Exit: The Game - Adventures on Catan, an escape room-style game with nods to the original Catan gameplay. One that could garner quite a lot of attention, being themed around one of the best board games ever.

"Players trade with residents to build out the island and discover more resources", the press release reveals. But it's not as simple as all that. "Numerous challenges and riddles" await players trying to build a new life in a modern land, so there should be plenty of puzzles and challenges to work out with your other Catan-obsessed pals.

I'm honestly trying to envision a Catan Exit game, but without any more information from the press release it's a little hard to do so. Do you need to figure out how to sail to the island itself? Will there be wheat-based puzzles making their way onto tabletops world-round?

Time will tell, though there are a good few months to go before the game is set to release in North America. We're looking at a June 2025 launch, but pre-orders are open right now for $17.95 on the Thames & Kosmos store.

Of course, it's not the only new product in the Catan franchise - the new version of Catan is "modernizing" the board game and "updating it to today's standards." We'll be able to see how successful that was when the game's sixth edition launches at the end of this month.

For more recommendations, why not check out some other classic family board games, or cooperative board games in the same vein.