CATAN Zip Edition lands in shops on 1 May, and it's the first version of the late Klaus Teuber's 30-year-old classic actually built to fit in a coat pocket. The whole game zips into a pouch carrying case with sturdy tiles, a self-contained dice roller and a pen-and-paper map you draw your roads, settlements and cities directly onto.
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Find events near youThe clever twist is the map system: 50 distinct CATAN board layouts come pre-printed, so each session gets a fresh starting island without faff. Resource trading still happens, but with tokens instead of cards, which keeps the deck count down to nothing. It plays 3-4 players, ages 10 and up, and Catan Studio is pitching it squarely at the holiday-bag, lunch-break and pub-table market.
This is part of a busy year for the franchise. Catan turned 30 in 2025 and the celebrations have rolled into 2026 with the 6th Edition, the recently-released CATAN On the Road card game, and a Netflix slate of scripted and unscripted adaptations in development. The Zip Edition slots into the same accessibility play, designed to get Catan in front of people who'd never sit down to a 90-minute setup.
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See how it worksFor UK gamers, the practical value here is the pub. Most board game cafes won't blink at you bringing a game in, but full Catan takes up half a table and a chunk of evening. Zip Edition fits in a tote bag and runs in roughly the time it takes to drink two pints. If your group's been talking about a regular weeknight game, this is exactly the sort of thing to throw in the rucksack and find a game night to bring it to.
Sources: CATAN | Catan Shop | Netflix
