Jackbox Games
CompanyUnited States · Founded 2011
Documents about Jackbox Games
Article
Get On the Party Line: Parties, Games, and Work at Mattel Electronics in the Early 1980s
In the early 1980s, parties shaped both the work and the design culture of Mattel Electronics' Applications Software group, and this study uses the origin of the "Party Line" videogame concept, pitched at a February 1983 party-style meeting, as its central case.
- The study draws on more than 150 interviews and roughly 20,000 archival pages to examine Mattel Electronics' Applications Software group in the early 1980s, using the February 1983 origin of the "Party Line" videogame concept as its central case.
- The authors argue that party practices both nurtured creativity and structured labor, producing "playbor" in which work and leisure blended and bridged divisions between marketing and programming, and they contrast this gender-balanced culture with the frat-like atmosphere they attribute to Atari.
- The Party Line concept was motivated by perceptions of videogames as antisocial and by Intellivision's shrinking market share, proposing party games to broaden the audience through shared, simplified play.
Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game CultureSep 2026
Article
Interview: Netflix Wants to Become the ‘Place to Play a Story’
Netflix is strategically positioning itself as a premier destination for narrative-driven gaming by leveraging its massive global audience of 700 million subscribers.
- Netflix aims to become a primary platform for interactive storytelling, specifically targeting its existing 700 million viewers who consume films and series, rather than traditional gamers.
- Netflix's new narrative game, "Unhinged," is a horror thriller starring Sadie Sink, Zoë Kravitz, and Troy Baker, designed to be an approachable, short experience (20-60 minutes) for a broad audience.
- The game utilizes the mobile phone as both a controller and an integral part of the narrative experience, evolving the 'found phone' genre previously explored in titles like the Mr. Robot game.
The Game BusinessJul 2026