Blue Orange Games

Blue Orange Games is a board game company based in San Leandro, California. The company was founded in 2000 by Thierry Denoual and Julien Mayot who are originally from France.

For the French board game company, see Blue Orange.

Denoual invented the first game, Gobblet, at the turn of the millennium and Julien produced a small quantity for local game stores in San Francisco. A San Francisco Chronicle review prompted the game to sell out locally and led to Julien Mayot partnering with Denoual to sell the game nationally.[1] Mayot took a three month road trip across the country, covering 22,000 miles and visiting 500 stores with a jeep packed with 1,000 Gobblet games. The trip and the subsequent 10,000 games sold marked the official start of the business.[2]

The name Blue Orange Games comes from a poem by Paul Eluard, "The Earth is Blue Like an Orange." The company is known for its tree planting campaign and commitment to environmental responsibility. The games are typically made out of wood, tin, resin, and recycled and recyclable materials.[2] Blue Orange Games released its best-selling game, Spot It!, in 2010, and it has since maintained its position in the top 100 in the toys & games category on Amazon.com.[3] Spot it! is now available in many different editions and has a Major League Baseball license and a National Hockey League license.[1]

The company has won notable industry awards in recognition for the management of their business. In 2011, Toy Collection and Learning Express presented Blue Orange Games with their Vendor Award and The American Specialty Retailer Association named Blue Orange Games Vendor of the Year in June 2012.[4][5] A large part of their success has been attributed to their personal style of doing business and retailer relationships.[2][6]

Behind the company's philosophy is the belief in the social and developmental benefits of playing offline games while spending less time engaged with electronic devices.[7]

Blue Orange groups

The group Blue Orange is constituted by three poles:

  • Blue Orange Edition (France) which can be considered as the engineering consulting firm of the group. Three project managers of Blue Orange Edition look for the playful pearls of tomorrow. They are in connection with the authors of game around the world and test more than 1,000 games a year.
  • Blue Orange Games (USA) is the distributor of Blue Orange's games in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
  • Blue Orange (France) which approve, validate and distribute the Blue Orange's games in the rest of the world: Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.

Blue Orange's games are distributed on 5 continents and in 59 different countries.

Note that there is no official structure called Blue Orange Group, though.

Products
  • Gobblet
  • Gobblet Gobblers
  • Pengoloo
  • Tell Tale
  • Fastrack
  • Double Shutter
  • Yamslam
  • Go Go Gelatos
  • Bluff You
  • Bendomino
  • Dr. Eureka
  • Zimmbos
  • Dr. Microbe
  • Brix
  • Photosynthesis
  • Kingdomino
  • Fantastic Park
  • Vikings on Board
  • Bao Bab
  • Sushi Draft

References
  1. Lynch, Jennifer (February 2013). "Specialty Emporium: Blue Orange". Toys & Family Entertainment. 8 (2): 128. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  2. "Julien Mayot – Co-Founder of Blue Orange Games". Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  3. Justina Huddleston (February 2012). "Q&A With Thierry Denoual, co-founder of Blue Orange". Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  4. "2012 ASTRA Excellence Awards". ASTRA Newsletter: 14. August 2012.
  5. Tina Benitez-Eves (13 June 2012). "Direct from Market: ASTRA Marketplace & Academy 2012". Gifts & Decorative Accessories. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  6. English-Loeb, Brenna (August 2012). "Retailers Love Blue Orange". Edplay. 19 (4): 37–38 [38].
  7. Lombardi, Nancy (February 2013). "State of the Specialty Toy Industry". Toys & Family Entertainment. 8 (2): 50. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
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