German game, toy and jigsaw puzzle company
Ravensburger AG
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Company type
| Aktiengesellschaft
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Industry
| Puzzle, toy
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Founded
| 7 May 1883
; 141 years ago
(
1883-05-07
)
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Headquarters
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Area served
| Worldwide
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Owner
| Maier family, private company
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Ravensburger AG
is a German game, puzzle and toy company, publishing house, and market leader in the
jigsaw puzzle
market.
History
[
edit
]
The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in
Ravensburg
, a town in
Upper Swabia
in southern
Germany
. He began publishing in 1883 with his first author contract. He started publishing instruction folders for craftsmen and architects, which soon acquired him a solid financial basis. His first board game appeared in 1884, named
Journey Around the World
.
At the turn of the 20th century, his product line broadened to include picture books, books, children’s activity books, art instruction manuals, non-fiction books, and reference books as well as children’s games,
Happy Families
, and activity kits. In 1900, the Ravensburger blue triangle
trademark
was registered with the Imperial
patent office
. As of 1912, many
board
and
activity games
had an export version that was distributed to
Western Europe
, the countries of the
Danube Monarchy
as well as
Russia
.
Before the
First World War
, Ravensburger had around 800 products. The publishing house was damaged during the
Second World War
and continued to produce games in the years of the reconstruction. The company focused on children's games and books and specialized books for art, architecture, and hobbies, and from 1962 grew strongly. The company started to produce jigsaw puzzle games in 1964, and in the same year opened subsidiaries in
Austria
,
France
,
Italy
, the
Netherlands
,
Switzerland
and the
United Kingdom
. In 1977, the company split into a book publishing arm and a game publishing arm.
Today there are approximately 1800 available books and 850 games as well as puzzles, hobby products, and
CD-ROM
titles at Ravensburger and its subsidiaries, which include
Alea
for "hobby and ardent game players" and
F.X. Schmid
for games, playing cards and children's books. Ravensburger products are exported to more than fifty countries.
Under the label
F.X. Schmid
, Ravensburger produces one of the only two packs of true
Tarock
cards in Germany: a 54-card pack of the
Bourgeois Tarot
pattern with genre scenes and used for playing the game of
Cego
, popular in the
Black Forest
region.
In September 2010, Ravensburger broke the world record for the largest jigsaw puzzle, with one designed by late pop artist
Keith Haring
titled "Keith Haring: Double Retrospect".
[1]
Built from 32,256 pieces, it measured 17' × 6' (5.18 m x 1.82 m) and came with a
hand truck
for transportation.
[2]
Ravensburger has since released larger puzzles, with their largest being "Memorable Disney Moments" and "Making Mickey Magic" having 40,320 pieces each, however they have also since lost the world record to a 51,300 piece puzzle released by
Kodak
.
[3]
Swedish toy train company
BRIO
was acquired by the Ravensburger Group on 8 January 2015.
[4]
In 2017, Ravensburger acquired American game company Wonder Forge.
[5]
The company's North American division, Ravensburger NA, is based in
Seattle, Washington
and releases approximately 25 games per year, the most successfully of which so far is
Villainous
, based on various
Disney
properties.
[6]
Ravensburger NA sold about 3 million copies of games in 2018.
[6]
Media subsidiaries
[
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]
Ravensburger Interactive Media
[
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]
Ravensburger Interactive Media GmbH
was a video game and software subsidiary of Ravensburger which published and distributed various games in
Germany
. The company had two brands; Ravensburger Interactive, which published family-friendly games and educational software, and
Fishtank Interactive
, which published games for mature players.
In May 2002, Ravensburger Interactive was sold with Fishtank Interactive to
JoWooD Productions
.
[7]
Ravensburger Film + TV/RTV Family Entertainment
[
edit
]
Ravensburger Film + TV GmbH
is a former
motion picture
and
television
subsidiary of Ravensburger.
In late 1998, Ravensburger split off Ravensburger Film + TV as a separately operated company and was renamed to
RTV Family Entertainment AG
.
[8]
Ravensburger remained a shareholder in RTV, holding 90% of its shares, and continued to license the "Ravensburger" brand. The company launched a
Ravensburger TV
block on
Super RTL
in June 2001.
[9]
In 2005, Ravensburger sold all their shares in the business, and in mid-2006, the company rebranded as
Your Family Entertainment AG
.
[10]
Notable games
[
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]
Games sold under the "Ravensburger" imprint:
Games sold under the "Alea" label:
Games sold under the
F.X. Schmid
label:
Games sold under the "Ravensburger Digital" label:
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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