Tuesday, April 1, 2008
This week, Hasbro bought the rights to Trivial Pursuit, and announced that they would be taking the game in a number of new directions. What does this mean for my many friends and family members (including my wife) who are big fans of the board game genre, but do not consider themselves to be nerds? Let me tell you about the new directions Hasbro (and its subsidiaries) have taken some other games:
- They acquired Magic: the Gathering, the granddaddy of collectible card games. Some might even call it "gibberish"
- They acquired Dungeons and Dragons from TSR (or maybe just ate the whole company). Among other things, they made a collectible miniatures game out of it.
- They took the WWII strategy board game Axis and Allies, and turned that into a collectible miniatures game.
- Hasbro has always owned the Transformers brand (at least, in North America), but yes, it's a collectible card game.
My dear friends, don't be surprised if you find yourself in the not-so-distant future among the (literally) unwashed nerd masses, in some stinky comic book store buying booster packs of Trivial Pursuit questions. I hope they save the Canadian geography questions for the junk rare cards.
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2 comments:
They're a monopoly NOT to be trifled with. They're discontinuing Hot Wheels cars and instead moving the brand completely online where kiddies can collect, pimp out and cruise their Hot Wheels around this online world. They want to make more money than they already do and because kids no longer play with toys (yes its a growing trend) but rather computers and anything online, they're making the move to a collectible on line world.
Shameful.
That and the fact they turn every good game/brand they acquire into a collectible environment. Meaning if you don't have the best mini or cards then you're going to keep losing to the kids with money until you BUY the best. This is a genius strategy but dastardly at the same time. (wipes tear) Sniff ...
With regards to Trivial Pursuit, they'll most likely be releasing a boring standard generic version and make you pay extra for limited time only expansions that come out once per year. Sad.
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