Board game creator is a £39m winner

Published on Saturday 5 January 2008 19:28

A BOARD game creator has landed a lucrative deal that makes the fortunes amassed by even the most canny Monopoly player seem like child's play.

Richard Tait, from Helensburgh, has hit the jackpot after selling his company to toy giant Hasbro for 39m.

The entrepreneur is the creator of the hugely popular game Cranium, which has racked up sales of 15 million in 30 countries.

Cranium was devised by the Seattle-based inventor, 43, after a weekend when he and his wife were playing board games with friends.

Both games focused on skill: the first one on drawing and the second one on spelling.

After winning the first game, but losing the second, he was inspired to create a game where everyone has a chance to shine.

He persuaded his friend Whit Alexander he had a winning idea. Together they wrote a 22-page plan for their proposed game and Cranium – and Cranium Inc – was born.

The pair went on to create a series of other hit games using the same process.

"Every game or experience we create is about a moment in someone's life," said Tait last year. "It's aim is to bring people together to have a relaxed, fun evening."

Tait's games are tested more than a hundred times before being put on the market. "In the early days, Whit and I would be hiding behind a couch in somebody's house watching them play the game," he said.

These days people flock to their headquarters in Seattle to test out new games. During this time, the pair scrutinise and refine the rules, content and activities, as well as noting players' likes and dislikes. They use this information to tweak the games before launching further reviews.

Tait has also signed a lucrative deal with game developer Ubisoft Entertainment to launch a Cranium game for Nintendo's Wii video game console.