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Berlin, Germany - June 28, 2004 - The Days of Wonder board game, Ticket to Ride, was named today as the recipient of the world's most prestigious game award, the German Spiel des Jahres.
Known in Germany as "Zug um Zug", Ticket to Ride is an original design of noted American game creator, Alan R. Moon. Released by Days of Wonder in March of 2004, the game had already garnered tens of thousands of fans in over 25 countries worldwide in the short four months following its release.
In announcing the award, Spiel des Jahres jury spokesperson Uwe Petersen told the media and professional crowd of 400 attendees that, "Zug um Zug is able to spellbind first time gamers and regular gamers equally well."
Ticket to Ride features an elegantly simple gameplay that can be learned in less than 5 minutes. Yet players face strategic and tactical decisions that vary with every turn. Players collect sets of matching color cards that are then used to claim railway routes connecting various cities across a map of North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who can fulfill Destination Tickets - secret goal cards that connect two distant cities.
"The secret of Ticket to Ride's success is that its rules are simple enough that the whole family can play, yet each turn is filled with tension, and each game played is a different experience", says Ticket to Ride author, Alan R. Moon. "I'm very excited to be able to accept this honor from the Spiel des Jahres jury."
The Spiel des Jahres winner traditionally goes on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies in the year it is awarded the prize, usually landing in the top five toys/games sold in Germany that year. Days of Wonder is the first American company to win the coveted prize since Hasbro (1981) and Mattel (1989). It is the youngest company ever to receive the award, less than 18 months after the release of its first games.
Ticket to Ride can be found in most hobby game stores, or ordered directly from Days of Wonder at www.daysofwonder.com. Suggested retail price is US $39.95.
About Days of Wonder
Days of Wonder, Inc. publishes high-quality board games for the whole family. They are easy to learn and fun to play. Besides Ticket to Ride, the company's most famous titles also include Mystery of the Abbey, a fun deduction game, Pirate's Cove, the terrific Pirates game, and Memoir '44, the official game of the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. Days of Wonder is a privately held company with offices in Los Altos, California and Paris, France.
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