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PORTRAIT Queen Games
From Market Vendor to Game Publisher
1989 was the founding year for two medium-sized game publishers which both followed a similar development. Both publishers have won the Spiel des Jahres: Abacusspiele for Zooloretto and Hanabi, and Queen Games for Alhambra and Kingdom Builder. Each has also had their disappointments: in the children’s games category Abacus narrowly failed to win the main prize with Leo Goes to the Barber, while Queen Games had two disappointments in Captain Silver and Push a Monster.
Ministry of Defense and was therefore not one of the wealthiest members of the family. The Gupta family traditions included sending the male heir off to England to study. And so, on 8 May 1977, the twenty-year-old Rajive landed on Brit- ish soil ready to soak up everything that English life and English education had to offer. Feeling no more self-sufficient than “a twelve-year-old”, the culture clash hit him hard. It was the first time he expe- rienced unlimited freedom; mostly every- thing that was forbidden in India was per- mitted here. Rajive therefore soon found himself a traveler between two worlds, looking for his personal path.
In England, he eventually met his wife, Beate Haasbach. After growing up in Bergisch Gladbach, Beate moved to Saar- brücken where she studied languages to become a professional translator. In 1982, she entered the lottery for a semes- ter abroad and won a semester in Brad- ford (England). It was there that a fellow student from Hamburg introduced her to Rajive, at that time a postgraduate in management studies. Beate fell under his charm and decided to extend her studies for another term, but in 1983 she had to return to Saarbrücken.
I Disposable lighters paid for travel
Neither of them had much money in
the early 1980s and visiting each other was expensive. But one day, thanks to his business sense, Rajive discovered a lucrative source to finance their trips. At that time disposable lighters cost about one pound in England, but at Aldi super- markets in Germany were only 0.50 DM. With the informal export of lighters to England, Rajive and Beate were able to finance their frequent reunions.
Before getting married in Copenhagen in 1986, Rajive and Beate wanted to find a place they could both call home. So, after completing their studies in 1985, Beate and Rajive travelled to Gupta’s homeland for four months. Although Beate was fascinated by the country, she soon recognized that she risked losing her independence. The constraints of a foreign culture, combined with the lack of opportunities to pursue her profession, meant that she was soon unhappy. Rajive recognized her predicament, for he under-
Both publishers are represented by a pair of ambassador-owners: Joe and Pia Nikisch from Dreieich
near Frankfurt [Abacusspiele], and Rajive Gupta and Beate Haasbach-Gupta from Troisdorf near Bonn [Queen Games]. Both publishers had their stands along the rim
games aficionado, started in the industry as a game author and editor, Rajive Gup- ta’s development is more eclectic and less linear, but extremely interesting. During a conversation with the Guptas at the small stand in Nuremberg, I tried to find out more about the beginnings of their pub-
Demonstrating the possibilities of Carrom: Rajive Gupta 1989 at his first booth
of Hall 10’s upper floor at the Nuremberg Toy Fair – you didn’t have to go far to see each one’s new products. But while the size of their stands was similar in Nurem- berg, it was a different story in Essen. The Nikischs were, as expected, in the smaller hall. The Guptas, however, were in the same arena as the industry heavy- weights in Halls 1 and 3; Queen Games even outdid Ravensburger and Schmidt in terms of exhibition space.
The genesis of the two publishers is also very different. Whereas Joe Nikisch, a
lishing house. This was not an easy task. I only had two hours and Rajive Gupta, with his extraordinary memory, regaled me with candid, detailed stories of situ- ations and conversations from the 1980s to early 1990s, however, all related to the actual situation of his company and market as a whole.
Rajive Gupta comes from a family of Indian textile merchants, whose dynasty was already a prominent business family at the time of British colonies. Rajive’s father, however, was a civil servant in the
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