What is "microgame"

n. 1 (context gaming English) A board game packaged in a small set with instructions in booklet format and counters to be cut from sheets of paper or cardboard. 2 (context video games English) A very small minigame, typically lasting for only a few seconds.

A microgame (sometimes written "MicroGame") is a board game or wargame packaged in a small set. Microgames enjoyed popularity during the 1980s. The term generally refers to board games or wargames which were packaged and sold with instructions and maps or playing surfaces printed in a booklet format, or as one large sheet folded until it became "pocket sized" (approximately 4×7 inches). Game pieces (also known as chits or counters) were printed on one or more sheets of thick paper which the player sometimes had to cut for themselves. Other microgames had fully die-cut cardboard sheets like those included with most board wargames. Steve Jackson Games used the Pocket Box to package many of their games in this format.

While small scale wargames and board games, including Tabletop Games' Micro Series Games, had existed before they began publishing, Metagaming Concepts first used the term "MicroGame" when they released Ogre, MicroGame #1 in 1977.

Some publishers of microgames include:

• Cheapass Games
• Dark City Games
• Fat Messiah Games
• Game Designers' Workshop (defunct)
• Metagaming Concepts (defunct)
• Microgame Design Group (defunct)
• Operational Studies Group
• Simulations Publications, Inc. (defunct)
• Steve Jackson Games
• Tabletop Games
• Task Force Games (defunct)
• Tri Tac Games
• TSR, Inc. (defunct)

Microgame S.p.A. is an Italian online gambling joint-stock company. The company operates both as an application service provider and developer of online platforms and integrated systems of service, and through the online community People's Poker Network, which is made of more than 130 online partners in all Italy and counts more than 1.5 million gaming accounts.

Microgame has around 30% of Italian online poker market (as of October 2010) and 27.1% of online sports betting market (9.4% of overall sports betting market, as of July 2010). Major shareholders in the company are private equity firms Monitor Clipper Partners and TPG Growth.