After months of status updates on the World of Wingspan newsletter and a brief visual preview on last week’s livecast, yesterday I fully revealed the Wingspan Americas Expansion via our website, the Wingspan Facebook group, BoardGameGeek, and a newsletter. Over the next few days I’m sharing stories, mechanisms, photos, Instagram posts, and YouTube videos about the expansion, followed by third-party media starting on January 16. The expansion will launch on our webstores on January 21 (shared via our newsletter and ads) and arrive on tabletops around the world in February. Local retailers will release the expansion in late February, then online retailers in early March. Throughout 2026 the expansion will feature at conventions, release in various languages, and be reviewed by a diverse array of content creators.

Why the long paragraph listing these milestones? I realized recently that this method is quite similar to something I’ve experienced by searching for homes on Zillow.

Over the last few months, we’ve casually been looking at homes in St. Louis. There’s a certain joy in low-key browsing without any immediate pressure to buy (we’re perfectly happy at our small condo).

Like similar websites, Zillow lets you set some parameters, and it will notify you about homes that meet those parameters. You can also favorite specific homes that you’d like to follow more closely.

What has impressed me about this system is that it creates so many opportunities for contacting and engage potential customers (like me):

• coming soon
• new listing
• open house
• plan your weekend
• price cut
• take the next step
• pending sale
• sold

As I’ve received these notifications–which walk a fine line between not enough and too many–I’ve found myself wishing there was something like this for tabletop games. I could list the parameters of the types of games I love the most, follow the games that intrigue me, and get notifications for key milestones.

In the meantime, this is essentially what we do for people who choose to follow our games. We have our general monthly newsletter (plus Instagram, YouTube, and a Facebook page), and anyone who wants to follow a specific game or brand can do so via that game’s newsletter (or its Facebook group, BoardGameGeek, or Discord). This is followed by the various touchpoints I mentioned in the opening paragraph.

Cast a wide net, then engage deeper with those who want more info about specific products. The repeated points of contact are designed to avoid overwhelming you all at once, yet at any time you could choose to read the rulebook (or opt out if you decide the product isn’t a good fit).

Honestly, it’s also fun for the publisher: We’ve been working on this expansion for years, so I appreciate the opportunity to share it from different angles over weeks and months.

What do you think about the Zillow method? Have you seen it used well for tabletop games or other products?

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