The Generation Game

A need for real live interaction, away from the computer screen and back into the family room, has people looking at board games and puzzles with newfound appreciation. And manufacturers are responding in kind with a host of new offerings geared to support this rekindled enthusiasm for family interaction.

The trend toward social interaction is very real, and games fit the bill. Hasbro Games' Family Game Night promotion has brought classic games like Monopoly, Operation and Mousetrap back in vogue. Jax Vice President Cindy Levine credits the Hasbro initiative with the retro focus on family game time. Jax has recently introduced Pegs in the Park (a preschool counting game), Take Away and Respond board games.

"Baby boomers reminiscing about the past are board game buyers," says John Chandler, Hasbro Games' senior vice president of marketing. Hasbro's approach is double pronged: emphasizing traditional games to expand Family Game Night into new markets and a foray into varied formats and platforms.

Today's wireless, electronic culture is something to tap into. "Using radio frequency in games is a truly innovative idea and a radical departure from what we're known for," Chandler explains. The electronic toy category is the fastest growing sector of Hasbro's overall business "and the irony is that computer games are often extensions of board games," he adds. "One's not really working against the other."

But there has been a perk to fewer new video game titles and systems, according to Pressman's vice president of marketing, David Shapiro, who notes the slowdown has given traditional games more shelf space at retail. Pressman's children's board game sales soared 40 percent thanks to Harry Potter, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Jr. and Scooby-Doo, and adult game sales rose 30 percent with the home version of the smash TV game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Traditional games are healthy with classic titles like Raggedy Ann and The Wizard of Oz accounting for a majority of sales. Shapiro says the numbers were up in 2000 with retailers selling through.

Mark Sullivan, Mattel Games senior vice president, says board game sales are up dramatically with the Fisher-Price brand still carrying clout with consumers in the preschool arena. Mattel's new Elmo's Dance and Learn Game features a musical dance mat to help little tykes learn coordination, shapes and sequencing through movement and music.

Endless Games is all over preschool with Where's the Pair, a matching card game, and Two Out of Three coming out in July. These games offer what national sales manager Brian Turtle calls "inadvertent learning," the buzz phrase that's motivating the preschool market. But to ensure the company is not dubbed a one-trick pony, Endless Games touts a game version of the TV show, What's My Line?, that it hopes will follow Pressman's Millionaire success.

University Games' research found a huge outcry from parents for more learning basics in games. New Step On It for preschoolers and My First Dump Truck strategy game encourage kids to use their imagination, creative thinking and coordination skills and, just as importantly, says spokesperson Lynette Cravens, the games burn off kids' excessive energy with movement. "There's a real need for this type of gameplay," adds Cravens, "which is proven with our Dr. Seuss ABC game continuing to sell through the roof."

Barrie Simpson, president of Warren Industries, has been doing her own research to turn the puzzle company into a niche game manufacturer. "We finally came up with a winner with LEGO Creator last year," she says. "It offered good margins, great packaging and no high TV promotion costs that helped establish our credibility."

Striking while the iron is hot, Warren has launched What's It, a puzzle game based on a European version called Dingbats. "Millionaire and Survivor opened up the door again for adult board games," Simpson adds. "I held on to the idea for years because I see this game doing what Pictionary did for the category."

Mattel also sees opportunity with its Harry Potter's Levitating Challenge, an obstacle game of increasing difficulty for kids ages 8 and up, that will be on retail shelves prior to the November release of the film based on the successful J.K. Rowling books. "Harry Potter is perceived as a long-term brand," says Sullivan. "What makes it so great for games is that it doesn't skew just to boys or just to girls."

Pressman, which has been successful with TV-based games, is building on brands in the strategy game market with updated gameplay and repackaging. Generic preschool and early elementary games are also a company focus. Last year's Fib Finder for the girls' tween market was expanded this year with Dream Star. On the girls' action side, Pressman bows its Cardcaptors game based on the Nelvana show. Shapiro is also bullish on the upcoming game version of Cartoon Network's top-rated Dexter's Laboratory. For the blossoming tween market, Briarpatch developed a friendship game based on Sanrio's Hello Kitty brand. "Retailers are looking for product in that demographic that is wholesome and fun," says president Martine Redman. In an interesting twist, Briarpatch's Honey Nut Cheerios Spelling Bee Game is being developed as a children's TV show. "We had this great game idea, and, at about the same time, Sony was looking to develop a TV show," explains Redman. "In testing, the storytelling and sequencing game went over well and will translate well as a show."

Wizards of the Coast popularized the collectible trading card game genre with Magic the Gathering. Pokémon opened it up to the mass market. Phil Tavel, co-founder of Interactive Imagination, has created Magi-Nation, a role-playing fantasy card game that is the stepping-stone between the older and darker Magic and the younger Pokémon cards. Magi-Nation, says Tavel, delivers what players want: collectibility, involvement in the evolution of the characters, a villain to push the action, a heroic character, entertainment value and an educational and social consciousness that doesn't pander to violence.

A Game Boy Color Magi-Nation role-playing game is a best seller on the Toys R Us/Amazon.com Web site and Duel expansion packs recently debuted. Talks are underway for an animated series in 2002.

A call from New Line Cinema to create a collectible trading card game based on the upcoming movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy "presents a huge opportunity," for Decipher, says marketing director Monica Jones. Images based on the three films (the first hits theatres in December) will be featured in the card games that go on sale in November. The maker of Star Wars card games hopes the Middle Earth saga becomes a long-term brand.

Games Workshop, manufacturer and retailer of Warhammer tabletop battle games, is sure the Tolkien fantasy has long legs and is creating a war game based on the forthcoming movie trilogy. With a chain of 35 stores in England, 24 in the United States and distribution in hobby and specialty stores around the world, Games Workshop is moving beyond its hobby roots with "the king of all fantasy worlds," says Jeremy Vetock, promotions manager, referring to Middle Earth. "It will expand a niche hobby through exposure." Games Workshop also debuts Inquisitor next month, a small-scale scrimmage role-playing game with five-inch science-fiction soldiers.

Meanwhile Pokémon shows little sign of slowing. Pokémon Neo Genesis trading cards keeping the brand steady, says Wizards of the Coast spokesman Jack Sabin. "There's the law of physics that says things have to cool off or turn to ashes. It's still our top-selling product."

Unlike Pokémon's rise from anonymity to an all-the-rage phenomenon, the Harry Potter trading card game that Wizards will debut in late summer is already a hot property at the mass-market level. Starter decks and booster packs will follow the storyline of the first novel.

Upper Deck looks to the small screen for its collectible trading card game based on the CBS-TV hit reality show, Survivor. With starter decks and booster card packs players can work through immunity and mental challenges as they vie for $1 million. A second game based on the current Survivor show in the Australian Outback is in the works, according to spokesman Justin Kanoya, as are card games based on Nelvana's Cardcaptors and trading cards from Bandai's Gundam Wing. A deal with WizKids promises trading cards based on the Mage Knight tabletop war game that is hot with hobbyists.

Gamewright caters to the specialty market and has introduced the Lucky Catch memory/matching game and 7 Safari strategy card game for older kids that Jason Schneider, marketing and sales coordinator, says fits the company's fun and educational philosophy. "There's a higher caliber of game player in the specialties," he says. "Gamewright is the Lexus of card game makers and we're filling a niche."

Innovations like three-dimensional puzzling and Wrebbit's perfalock system are breathing freshness into the puzzle category.

Wrebbit's patented perfalock system takes a 1,000-piece puzzle up off the table in 3D and 2D levels.

Another neat puzzle idea comes from children's furniture manufacturer, Biggwood. "With our Community Puzzle, we provided the pieces in a medium that is easy to decorate around a theme," explains president Robert Gibson. Each interchangeable puzzle piece can be drawn on and put together to make a larger picture. "It took off with schools and we got a tremendous response from families, so we're taking it to retail," Gibson adds. "A sense of community is important these days and everyone has something to offer with their individual piece."

Puzzles are also an enjoyable way to spend limited downtime, says Pat Duncan, president of The Great American Puzzle Company. "People are tired of staring at the computer at work and then again at home," she explains. "What was once new is just another appliance." Thirty percent of the company's puzzles are new each year, with the children's lines divvied up into licensed properties (such as Nelvana's Franklin the Turtle, Little Bear, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast) and generic puzzles with bold colors and added features like 3D glasses that make the images pop up. New four-in-one puzzle sets come with facts relating to insect and emergency vehicles themes.

In the new Young Explorers series, information and facts relate to the puzzle's subject, such as a shark or lion, with activities on the puzzle box.

The 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics is the order of the day for Heritage Puzzle, a family-run operation that started with jigsaw puzzles of lighthouses using original artwork, a subject that president B.K. Everhart says was overlooked but much in demand. This license is a tall order but Everhart says built-in exposure with the Olympic torch traveling through 85 U.S. cities and extensive television promotion by NBC-TV will make the puzzles universally appealing.

Jakks Pacific is edging its way into the puzzle market with foam licensed (Sesame Street, Blue's Clues) and non-licensed lines but is finding resistance from retailers and consumers who favor wood. "When wood puzzles are up, foam sales suffer," says Jamie Wood, senior vice president of action toys and in charge of the puzzle division.

"Mom is the gatekeeper for preschool toys' consumption and right now she's buying wood puzzles," she adds. "Wood has a perceived value today and it's been tough to tap into the mass market. But wood could be considered dangerous or out of fashion next year and foam will again be popular."