Editing Pictionary (section)

== History ==
The concept of ''Pictionary'' was first created by Robert Angel and his friends in 1981. Angel and his roommates came up with the concept of the game, which proved to be very popular between them. While originally hesitant to pitch the idea, Angel was inspired by ''[[Trivial Pursuit]]'', the gameplay of which was similar to his concept and proved to him that such gameplay could work and be successful.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Scipioni|first=Jade|date=2020-08-26|title=How a 20-something waiter made millions creating ''Pictionary'': 'I had no idea what I was doing'|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/26/how-a-young-waiter-created-pictionary-in-the-1980s.html|access-date=2020-11-09|website=CNBC}}</ref>

Angel and his business partners Terry Langston and Gary Everson first published ''Pictionary'' in 1985 through Angel Games. A week before ''Pictionary'' was first launched, Angel Games' printing company called to inform them that they could not sort through the 500,000 cards they had printed out. Angel and his partners had to sort through the cards themselves over the course of six days.<ref name=":0" /> They managed to sell 6,000 copies in one year at $35 each.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Game Boys|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/1997/10/13/smallb1.html|access-date=2020-11-09|website=bizjournals.com}}</ref>

Angel Games licensed the game in 1986 in a joint venture between The Games Gang and [[Western Publishing]]. In 1994, [[Hasbro]] took over publishing after acquiring the games business of Western Publishing.<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite news|date=1994-04-08|title=Company News; Western Publishing to Sell Its Games Unit to Hasbro |work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/08/business/company-news-western-publishing-to-sell-its-games-unit-to-hasbro.html|access-date=2020-11-09|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In 2001, ''Pictionary'' was sold to [[Mattel]]. At that time they were in 60 countries and 45 languages, with 11 versions just in the US and a total of 32,000,000 games sold worldwide.