Ever since the launch in 2018 of the Global Edition of our board game, Business on the Move, we have been regularly asked ‘when will the digital version be coming out’?

Players do love the ‘traditional’ board game ~ with tangible trains and boats and planes to move and physically sending your rival’s truck back to the start ~ but an online version that offers the opportunity for players from across the world to pit their wits against each other would clearly appeal to players with an interest in global supply chains.

With the growth in online learning and lockdown shutting down most of our diary engagements we have invested much of the last eighteen months in developing not one, but two parallel and different digitised products.

One digitised version is what we are calling our ‘Digital Twin’ (or DT), a virtual representation of the board game many of you will know and have possibly played previously.

The Digital Twin is designed to be played mainly on desktops and laptops with each game actively hosted by the players’ trainer or teacher.

Typically the teacher / trainer will link live with their players who may be situated anywhere across the world. The teacher / trainer acts as ‘Banker’ and ‘Referee’, facilitating game play and pausing play, for instance, to explore a topical issue that arises or to compare players’ financial performance.

Players of the Global Edition board game will recognise the board and perhaps some cards but previous board game experience will only confer a marginal and short-term advantage.

Developed in collaboration with the University of Warwick  the Final Test Programme for our Digital Twin is scheduled for September-October 2023 ~ a big thank you to all our volunteers ~ with the release of the finalised game planned for December 2023-January 2024

Our second digitised product ~ and just as exciting ~ is the development of a ‘Mobile App’ in collaboration with 21CC Education. We see the App as particularly suitable for play on mobile phones and tablets. It will operate through a customised software application that will see transport move freight across a map rather than a game board and the Bank function fully integrated within the App.

The original logic behind the board game has provided a solid platform to explore and develop imaginative mobile concepts with topical scenarios ~ such as carbon emissions, new technology, insurance claims and investing in skills ~ integral to game play.

The possibilities are very exciting as we continue to work with strategic partners in 2023-24 to shape the future of the App that combines the sophistication of 21st century global supply chains with the core principles that underpin powerful learning.

If you want to be amongst the first in the world to see how our Digital Twin and/or Mobile App work, watch the video clip below and enter your details into the form to receive an alert as soon as the precise launch dates are arranged.