MB GAMES
THE BIRTH OF A BOARD GAME EMPIRE
MB Games (Milton Bradley) was founded by Milton Bradley in 1860 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bradley opened a color lithography shop where he designed images of Abraham Lincoln until Lincoln's appearance changed and the prints declined in popularity. Instead of giving up, Milton decided to use his shop to produce something new. After speaking with a friend who suggested creating an American board game, Milton developed his first game, The Checkered Game of Life, in 1860. Sales of The Checkered Game of Life exceeded 45,000 copies by the spring of 1861, leading Milton Bradley to shift the company's focus toward the growing American board game industry. A few months later, when the Civil War began, Bradley started producing portable game sets for soldiers to enjoy during their free time, establishing what are considered some of the first travel games made in the United States.
THE EVOLUTION OF MB GAMES
The company reached a turning point after Milton attended a lecture on the Kindergarten Movement. Soon afterward, he became a supporter and began producing educational supplies such as colored paper, paints, and classroom aids. He often distributed these materials free of charge, leading to financial strain on the company. The situation became so severe that MB's investors threatened to withdraw their funding unless he stopped. In 1920, MB acquired the game production assets of the McLoughlin Brothers, greatly expanding its catalog and becoming one of the nation's leading board game manufacturers. Throughout the 1950s through the 1980s, Milton Bradley expanded its catalog with some of the world's most recognizable board games, including Candy Land, Operation, Twister, Battleship, Connect 4, and Simon, all released within a few years of one another. In 1984, MB Games was acquired by Hasbro, expanding its catalog and distribution worldwide. More than a century after its founding, Milton Bradley is remembered as one of the companies that helped shape the modern board game industry and created some of the world's most well-known classic board games.
