Consider Monopoly, the granddaddy board game of them all. The company keeps a list of its top 30 classic games titles such as Monopoly, Scrabble, Twister, Life and tracks it sort of like a Dow Jones industrial index. In 1999, sales increased 6 percent. Hasbro started a nifty marketing gimmick dubbed Family Game Night, with a Web site encouraging parents to set aside one night a week for playing games with their children. The 40th anniversary edition of Life features minivans and a square that requires a purchase of a high-definition television.
Games also go out of style.
Canasta, for example, just might be teetering on extinction. According to Norma Hipkins, owner of the Game Preserve in Fresno, Calif., not many folks under the age of 70 know how to play canasta, and it s hard to find the accessories for the game anywhere. But the underlying appeal of board games, which is the interaction involved, remains unchanged. The inventions of the radio and the television failed to squash board games, and there have not been any innovations in the last decade which pose any serious threat to their future. Certainly some brands will die, but as society evolves, new games will emerge.