Yahtzee History

Remember those little spotted cubes that you played with as a child? Yes, the traditional spotted cube dice has stood the test of time.
Dice games are supposed to be one of the oldest gambling devices created by man. There are several classic dice games such as Poker dice, Pig and Liar's dice, but Yahtzee has remained one of the most popular dice games of all time. Known as the "grandfather of all modern dice games", it is a simple game that is said.

Yahtzee is played by up to 10 players. In this game, each player rolls five dice up to three times in one turn, trying to get the best possible score in various categories. There are a total of thirteen categories such as Three of a kind, Full house and Straight five, very similar to poker hands. Several variants and versions of the game have been released over the years - Word, Casino and Challenge Yahtzee.
Yahtzee is said to have been invented by a wealthy Canadian couple in 1954, whose names are not known. They invented the game, in order to entertain their friends on their yacht. Whenever anyone was invited aboard, they were taught how to play the "Yacht" game. Their friends enjoyed the game so much that everyone wanted copies of the game for themselves. So in 1956, the couple approached Edwin S. Lowe, a toy maker. They placed an order with him to make up a few samples of the game, so they can distribute it among their friends. Lowe liked the game so much that he offered to buy the rights for it.
The couple agreed and the rights to the original game of Yahtzee were sold to Edwin Lowe for the price of the first thousand games produced. The couple distributed the thousand copies among their friends. Lowe eventually changed the name of the "Yacht game" to Yahtzee. The first commercial usage of the name was on April 3, 1956. It is only on April 19 of the same year that Lowe filed the game as a trademark with the U.S. Patent Office.

Early years

In the beginning, the game did not sell very well. Despite all of Mr. Lowe's attempts to advertise and popularize the game, it did not sell very well in the first year of its introduction. The reason for this was that the game just could not be adequately described by means of an ad. It had many nuances and interesting things about it and they can only be understood if the game was actually played.
Soon after this realization, Edwin Lowe started throwing Yahtzee parties, hoping to achieve good results by word of mouth. And that is exactly what happened.
The game took off immensely. It became one of the most popular games and hundreds and millions of copies of the game are said to be sold within a few years after that. The game won the hearts of millions of people. During Lowe's ownership alone, over forty million copies of the game were sold in the United States of America as well as around the globe. During Lowe's ownership of the rights to the game, a number of changes were made to the packaging of it, its contents, and appearance.
Between the years 1956 and 1961, the game's advertising slogans also changed. First, the slogan was "The game that makes you think while having fun" to "The fun game that makes thinking fun!" The official logo printed on the boxes and score cards in the game remained the same throughout Lowe's ownership. But after 1973, to this date, the logo has been changed several times.

After 1973

In 1973, the Milton Bradley Company bought over the E. S. Lowe Company. They also acquired the rights of Yahtzee. But the concept of the popular dice game is said trace its roots back to a number of other traditional dice games. The English dice games of Poker dice and Cheerio, as well as the Puerto Rican game of Generala are said to have influenced the start of Yahtzee.
Currently, the right to the dice game of Yahtzee is owned by Hasbro, a toy company. Now he game is said to sell around 50 million copies every year.
Timeline:
1954 - Canadian couple invents the "Yacht" game.
1956 - Edwin S. Lowe buys rights, changes name to Yahtzee.
1973 - Milton Bradley Company buys the E.S. Lowe Company, acquiring game rights.
Sept 1984 - Hasbro, Inc. acquires the Milton Bradley Company and the game.
1996 - Hasbro Interactive releases the first computer version of the game.