Another week, another massively popular videogame getting a board game adaptation! Like Legacy games before them, digital-to-tabletop conversions really are the hot trend right now. The latest such project, Phasmophobia: The Board Game, is an interesting example for a few reasons, and, since its limited print run has just gone up for pre-order, now's a good time to have a close look.
Let's just exorcize one evil spirit right up top: Wargamer is not a debbie downer when it comes to tabletop games adapted from videogames. They can absolutely be fantastic, and we've even enshrined them as a category in our list of the best board games of all time (kudos once again to the magnificent Rome Total War board game).
But they can, of course, also be cash ins with limited value as board games in their own right. We approach each on its own merits. So, what do we know about Phasmophobia: The Board Game's merits? At the moment, not a lot, beyond its general looks, how much it costs, and (roughly) when it's coming out.
Announced in September 2025 as a collaboration between the videogame's developer Kinetic Games and trendy gaming book publisher-slash-design studio Lost In Cult, the game is now up for pre-order on the latter's website, at $106.63 (£79.99).
If you decide to buy in, you'll be waiting around a year to get your hands on the box, though, as the game is scheduled to ship in late 2026. Worth noting, for tariff purposes, is that Lost in Cult is based in the UK, not the USA. However, the studio does say it's "working diligently to adapt to these changes", and promises that "any products pre-ordered from our store will not result in any additional fees being passed on to our U.S customers on the receipt of goods".
As for gameplay, the official promo trailer and product pages, which both went live on Thursday, October 23, give us some clues. At base, it's clearly about exploring grid-based rooms, looking for ghosties; it's for 1-4 players; and it's apparently a co-op board game (as you'd expect) though we've no gameplay details yet about exactly how the cooperation (or solo play) will work.
According to a brief gameplay summary on the Lost in Cult website, we'll be using the game's 20 reversible room tiles to build a "haunting property… full of unpredictable, randomized items". Lost In Cult confirms the tiles will build both familiar maps from the videogame and new custom layouts, and that each game will finish with you reaching the dreaded Ghost Room.
Those randomized equipment items are clearly a big focus of the game, and we don't know how they'll work yet. But, as Lost in Cult underlines that they'll include "iconic gear and cursed possessions" from the videogame, it's a safe bet stuff like the Ouija board, mirror, and tarot ought to crop up with powerful in game effects.
Each game, you'll draw a "Ghost Type card" to determine the sort of phantom you'll be hunting, each with "its own powers, paired with an evidence pool randomised for each playthrough". Kinetic Games' announcement blog post confirms that the board game will contain "the same amount of types as in-game" - so we can expect 24 different variant ghosties in the box.
Lost in Cult says the game will use its "Ghost Behavior board" to make the ghost's actions are "unpredictable". And there's a sanity mechanic too, as the studio says "the threat escalates as your sanity deteriorates, giving way to more aggressive and dangerous manifestations". Presumably that's what the spooky-looking 50-card "Event Hallucination" deck is for, then.
From what we know so far, Phasmophobia: The Board Game is shaping up to look more like Betrayal at House on the Hill than anything else, but a) we won't know for sure until we've tried it for ourselves and b) if it does, that's no bad thing, because Betrayal slaps.
What do you think? If you're a die hard Phasmophobia player like our own Mollie Russell, will you be shelling out for this undeniably pretty tie in? Or are you sticking with digital phantom-chasing for now? Come join the free Wargamer Discord community and let us know. While you're there, if you can shock us with your own super scary D&D monster creation, you could win over $150 worth of TTRPG books!