Scrap Trivial Pursuit, Cranium's the game

By CLAIRE TREVETT

The latest board game to hit America is shaping up to be a Christmas hit.

Cranium was launched in New Zealand in August and distributor Planet Fun says sales are four times higher than expected, with 8000 games sold in the lead-up to Christmas.

New Zealand retailers believe the game will signal a renaissance in adult board games.

Invented in 1998, Cranium became the fastest-selling independent board game in American history, claiming more copies sold in its first week than Trivial Pursuit sold in its first year.

Self-confessed addicts include Julia Roberts, Mike Myers, Will Smith and Justin Timberlake.

Cranium was created by former Microsoft executives Richard Tait and Whit Alexander, who wanted a game for all comers that would test both academic and creative ability.

The players work in teams through a set of activities including impersonations, word challenges, whistling, and sculpting.

Planet Fun director Jeremy Kirk-Smith said figures for Cranium were up with those for Scruples, launched in 1985. "Since then, we haven't really had a good adult board game, so this is phenomenal."

Whitcoulls category manager Hayden West said its stores had sold more than 1000 games and expected to sell more as word spread. Trivial Pursuit's latest edition, Genus 5, was popular, "but Cranium is definitely the game of the summer by a long way".

He said it would join the line-up of perennial favourites, including Monopoly, Pictionary and Scrabble.

"There are the classic games people are always buying, and I think Cranium will become one of those."

Board games in general were selling well this Christmas. "With board games, you're all sitting around something, rather than the computer where you can only have one or two together."

But St Lukes and Browns Bay Toyworld manager Francis Opie said the game had not sold as well as hoped.

"It is probably one of those games that builds up."