 | |
| Industry | Board & card games |
|---|---|
| Founded | 19th century (as a printing firm), 1922 (gaming company) |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | |
| Headquarters | Leeds & London |
| Products | Monopoly Cluedo Waddingtons Christmas Jigsaws Playing cards |
Waddingtons was a British manufacturer ofcard andboard games. The company was founded by John Waddington ofLeeds, England and the manager, actor and playwrightWilson Barrett, under the nameWaddingtons Limited. The name was changed in 1905 toJohn Waddington Limited, thenWaddington's House of Games, thenWaddington Games, and finally justWaddingtons.
The company was established as a printing business, and at first 'practically all its business related to the theatre'.[1] It entered into game production in 1922, due to a boom in demand for playing cards aroundWorld War I.[2] Waddingtons subsequently sold both original games (especially tie-ins for UK television programmes) and games licensed from other publishers.
Waddingtons became the UK publisher of the USParker Brothers'Monopoly, while Parker licensed Waddingtons'Cluedo.[2] In 1941, the BritishDirectorate of Military Intelligence section 9 (MI9) had the company create a special edition of Monopoly forWorld War IIprisoners of war held by the Germans.[3] Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by fake charitable organisations.[4] In 2024, an immersive, life-sized monopoly was created in Leeds in honor of Waddingtons.[5]
Victor Watson, the grandson of Victor Hugo Watson was its chairman from 1977 to 1993.[6][7] While well known for games, they never provided more than 15% of profit; Victor continued his father Norman's emphasis on improving packaging technology, such as folding cartons and microwave trays. From the 1970s, the popularity ofvideo games hurt game sales, and after Victor's retirement,[8] the company was bought byHasbro in 1994.[9]
Beginning in 1994,Christmas-themedjigsaw puzzles were released annually until 2007. The first twelve in the series depicted a scene from aVictorian-era Christmas. The final puzzle depicted a scene from thefairy taleCinderella. The small number of puzzles, combined with them being limited editions, has made these puzzles highly collectable. Further jigsaws have been produced since 2010 by a new company, using the same brand name.
Among the games published by Waddingtons were:
| Game designers and publishers |  | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Predecessors | |||||||||
| HasbroMonopoly and licensees |
| ||||||||
| Game elements | |||||||||
| Licensed and localized versions | |||||||||
| Spin-off games |
| ||||||||
| Monopoly on television | |||||||||
| Unlicensed games | |||||||||
| Related | |||||||||
