out of the box publishing inc. type privately held company industry toys founded 1998 madison wisconsin 1 headquarters windsor wisconsin united states key people al waller president leah sugar vice president of marketing bridget stitgen cfo max osterhaus director of product development derek mccoy sales and warehouse manager 2 number of employees 5 website www.otb games.com out of the box publishing is a wisconsin based publishing company specializing in family card and party games . as of october 2013 they have published over 45 titles . out of the box publishing is best known for games that are easy to learn and quick to play . the company has received numerous awards including mensa select toy of the year parenting for high potential and national parenting center . 2 contents 1 history 2 games 3 list of published games 4 distributors 5 trivia 6 references 7 external links history edit out of the box publishing was established in 1998 in madison wisconsin by mark osterhaus ellen winter alan waller cathleen quinn kinney and john kovalic . the first game published by the company was bosworth a four player chess variant which has since been retired . 1 in the summer of 1998 out of the box publishing acquired the license for their most well known game apples to apples from inventor matthew kirby . apples to apples was redesigned into its current form by mark osterhaus and the content was created by ellen winter with help from their family leah sugar and max osterhaus . over the next ten years out of the box grew into a leading american game company supplying games to thousands of specialty toy stores target walmart and toys r us as well as distributing games worldwide . during this time out of the box licensed and distributed games in more than 10 foreign countries germany uk scandinavia france australia new zealand south korea and others and amassed more than 15 awards for game design . 2 while out of the box held the license for apples to apples it produced and sold over three million copies . in 2007 the company sold the licenses to apples to apples blink snorta and qwitch to the mattel corporation several owners retired and several new owners including children of the previous owners were invited to join . 2 since the sale out of the box has new growing games such as word on the street 7ate9 and snake oil . 1 out of the box publishing is no longer in business . they sold all of their remaining inventory and ceased operations in october 2015 . games edit out of the box publishing is best known for games that take less than five minutes to learn and less than a half an hour to play . 3 all out of the box games are family oriented and appropriate for kids and adults . 2 their games have been called surprisingly entertaining and silly fun 4 as well as thought provoking and humorous . 3 nearly all of the games in their catalog were created after 2008 . 2 out of the box accepts game submissions from new inventors as well as established inventors . the company receives over 600 submissions a year and publishes about two new games per year . 2 instructions for submitting a game are located on the company s website . 5 list of published games edit snake oil 2012 bug out 2011 word on the street junior 2010 10 days in the americas 2010 word on the street 2009 7ate9 2009 super circles 2009 backseat drawing junior 2009 letter roll 2009 ninja versus ninja 2008 the chain game 2008 backseat drawing 2008 rock 2008 zen benders 2008 party pooper 2008 my word 2008 rerelease abridged 2006 10 days in asia 2006 cineplexity 2006 cover up 2006 mix up 2006 pepper 2006 qwitch 2006 re release 10 days in europe 2005 blink 2005 rerelease easy come easy go 2004 harry s grandslam baseball 2004 letterflip 2004 squint jr. 2004 wallamoppi 2004 apples to apples party box expansion one 2004 apples to apples party box expansion two 2004 10 days in africa 2003 10 days in the usa 2003 basari 2003 cloud 9 2003 fish eat fish 2003 gavitt s stock exchange 2003 tutankhamen 2003 whad ya know 2003 wildside 2003 apples to apples party box 2003 snorta 2003 gold digger 2002 squint 2002 apples to apples custom cards 2002 apples to apples kids 2000 shipwrecked 2000 apples to apples 1999 bosworth 1998 distributors edit out of the box games are distributed by 999 games netherlands acd usa alfit israel alliance game distributors usa amigo spiel germany board game club hong kong carant entertainment mexico creative fun singapore esdevium games uk gts distribution usa korea boardgames south korea lion rampant imports canada logical toys new zealand lu2 experts en jocs de taula spain my games india paradigm infinitum singapore pegasus spiele germany phantasia taiwan ravensburger spielverlag germany rootstem co. south korea spilavinir iceland sunset games japan swan panasia taiwan wargames hk hong kong vennoroed norway ventura australia trivia edit the artistic director and one of the founders of out of the box publishing john kovalic was also the illustrator for munchkin and dork tower . references edit a b c arneson erik . out of the box publishing game publisher . about.com . retrieved october 24 2013 . a b c d e f g lafaro alyssa september october 2013 . out of the box publishing take two . endplay . retrieved september 24 2013 . a b gordon lindsay july 12 2013 . commentary snake oil will cause laughter . the toy book . retrieved september 24 2013 . kosman joshua september 2 2012 . new board games for the holidays . san francisco chronicle . retrieved september 24 2013 . product submissions . out of the box official site . retrieved september 24 2013 . external links edit out of the box homepage out of the box twitter page out of the box blog out of the box facebook page out of the box youtube channel snake oil game facebook page out of the box publishing at boardgamegeek retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title out of the box publishing & oldid 727680621 categories board game publishing companiescard game 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