Of course Food Chain Magnate’s first expansion will have a ‘Ketchup Mechanism’

Food Chain Magnate is getting its first expansion next year, the creators of the acclaimed restaurant management game have announced.

Splotter revealed its plans for The Ketchup Mechanism & Other Ideas in a suitably saucy Facebook tease, poking fun at the tough Euro strategy of the original game that makes it hard for players who slip behind in victory points to catch up.

Whether the Ketchup Mechanism will indeed let players of the fast food chain management epic close the gap remains to be seen – as do the mysterious ‘Other Ideas’ of the title.

However, Splotter offered a few clues as to the nature of the expansion in response to excited fans, revealing that it had been “considering” if expanding the game’s player count to support a group of six “would be interesting to people”.

In reply to one commenter’s concern that the already weighty game would become even heavier with the addition of extra mechanics, it added: “We strive to create more diversity of play, not (too much) complexity.”

There’s plenty of time for The Ketchup Mechanism & Other Ideas to change – Splotter says that although the expansion will be available to playtest at Essen next month, it won’t be released until sometime in 2019. When it does come out, you can expect to find it on Splotter’s website and in shops.

With its games often notoriously hard – or at least, expensive – to find, Splotter also took the opportunity to update fans on its other projects.

Notably, the studio’s civ-building transportation classic Roads & Boats is “very likely” to be reprinted in 2019 alongside the game’s 20th anniversary, Splotter said.

Fans of 2012 economic monument-builder The Great Zimbabwe, however, will need to hold on a little longer, as Splotter confirmed that it currently has no plans for a reprint or an expansion, although “a reprint is more likely than an expansion”.

As for Food Chain Magnate, it was reprinted earlier this year – there’s no word on whether another run might accompany the expansion next year.

Looking ahead, Splotter mentioned that it had been working on a brand new game, but had put temporarily on hold as the result of working on The Ketchup Mechanism & Other Ideas.

“The new game idea we had in mind stalled,” it said. "We hope next year."