viktor_haag: (Default)
viktor_haag ([personal profile] viktor_haag) wrote2008-03-31 10:38 pm
Entry tags:

What is Hasbro thinking?

Hasbro just bought Horn Abbott's reason for being for 80 million US. That's right, although up to recently Hasbro had been producing Trivial Pursuit under license from Horn Abbott, now they own it. What company in their right mind pays eighty million dollars for a boardgame that's long past its window of maximum popularity? Does Hasbro really think that Trivial Pursuit belongs in the same lofty category as Monopoly and Scrabble? Wow.

This is a bit of a dilemma for Horn Abbott, surely; I mean, on the one hand, 80 million is very nice on the balance sheet, but isn't it only really nice if you're betting that the game is actually worth much less than that? Otherwise, why not hold onto the IP and continue to license it?

Unless personal exigencies got involved?

One of my fondest game memories comes (indirectly) from Trivial Pursuit. I have nostalgic memories of Mr Gameway's Ark (a toystore once in Toronto that my childhood memories clearly recall as the best toystore ever). When TP came out, the lineup was down the three flights of stairs, out the door, and around the block, and employees were entertaining the crowd by yelling out questions to them from the game.

It was on that day that I bought one of my first copies of the Little Black Books, three of them, in the basic box. That particular part of the memory won't mean anything to you unless you know what the Little Black Books are, and if you do, then no doubt you are now basking in the warm glow of your own LBB reminiscences...

[identity profile] doc-mystery.livejournal.com 2008-04-01 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, Mr. Gameways Ark...

The Four Horsemen...

The Battered Dwarf...

(sniff)

::B::
mylescorcoran: (Default)

[personal profile] mylescorcoran 2008-04-01 08:07 am (UTC)(link)
I have fond memories of Trivial Pursuit because it makes me remember my late father and our arguments that hinged on whether or not he was bluey green/greeney-blue colour-blind.

[identity profile] doc-lemming.livejournal.com 2008-04-01 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I have fond memories of Bowrings when TP first came out. I used to hang out there because I knew most of the staff and they introduced me to this game...

And I have a colour deficiency too, and there are some games where I just don't know what the designers were thinking. I mean, on the current edition of Swap people with regular sight can't determine certain colours, let alone me....

[identity profile] stak.livejournal.com 2008-04-02 12:57 pm (UTC)(link)
old board games seem to be coming back to life on facebook (see scrabulous lawsuit). maybe trivial pursuit will rise again...