Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Mattel Buys Games From Out of the Box

Mattel, recently in the news for recalling 19 million toys contaminated with lead, just announced that it is buying the rights to several games from Out of the Box Publishing, including Apples to Apples, Snorta, and Blink. (also on Forbes)

On the subject of games and art, Wired has an article that contends that games are better in the horror genre than movies.

The Daily News Journal touts games as useful educational tools for the classroom. One thing bothers me. They say that kids who play chess are more likely to be able to concentrate and plan and so on... Is that because the game helps them do these things, or is that because these are the type of kids who are drawn to chess?

Here's an incredibly convoluted article about games. I'm not entirely sure what it's about. On the one hand it says that today's toys are not like yesterday's toys. On the other hand, it says that yesterday's board games are still the most popular games. Hmmm...

You can now play UNO on your Blackberry.

Yehuda

2 comments:

Tim - A GameBuff said...

I've been following your blog for a few months as I have benn getting into board games more. I appreciate the range of topics you discuss as I used to be more into the RPG and strategy game scene and now my circle of friends are more into party games and casual games, so it's hard finding blogs and forums that talk about more of the casual games.

I'm interested in seeing if this purchase by Mattel will help or hurt or have no measurable change for the gaming industry here in the US. Apples to Apples was already a large seller, so I'm interested in seeing what other games Mattel may promote from Out of the Box and if this will help more of the indy or smaller game companies get notice from the mainstream. I'm optimistic, but pessimistic and realistic at the same time. I'm just confused :)

-Tim
Buffalo GameBuffs blog

Yehuda Berlinger said...

Nice to have you aboard, Timothy.

I can't see how this can but help the game industry. The more and better cardboard games out there, the better.

I seriously doubt that it will have much effect on smaller publishers, however, as the rules of the publishing and distribution game haven't changed.

And dear readers, a great way to get me top notice your blog is to comment on one of my posts!

Yehuda