Siblings Jonathan Silva and Kerry Addis may have taken over leadership of WS Game Co. in Manchester-by-the-Sea at the beginning of this year, but they’ve been in the business their whole lives.
Their father, Dana Silva, worked for Parker Brothers and then Hasbro, and the pair have fond memories of visiting him in the office where they had Nerf gun wars and tested out new toys. One year, the company considered cutting a game that wasn’t selling well, but the family’s passion for it convinced them to give it another chance.
“Our family single-handedly kept the game Catchphrase from being discontinued,” Addis laughs.
Today, the brother and sister are co-owners and executives of a thriving game company that creates collectible, design-forward versions of classic games that are as beautiful to look at as they are fun to play. And consumers seem to agree: The business is on track to sell more than a million games this year.
The path to present-day success started in 2000. After Hasbro closed its Beverly office, Dana Silva and his former Hasbro colleague Mike Doyle decided to start their own enterprise, creating special edition games on contract for their former employer.
At the same time, Kerry and Jonathan were pursuing their own professional interests. Kerry went to school for graphic and industrial design, then got a job designing packaging for Crate and Barrel. Jonathan studied business at Bentley University, then moved to California. Both, however, ended up feeling the lure of the family business. Kerry joined the company in 2008, working on the design team, and Jonathan returned in 2010, taking over North American sales.
In that same year, the company was granted licenses to adapt some of Hasbro’s most enduringly popular games into new designs. WS took this freedom and ran with it, creating striking new versions of old favorites using high-end materials including glass, woods, metals, and even Swarovski crystals. They make a wall-mounted, wooden-framed Scrabble; games packed in nostalgic tin boxes; and a Monopoly played on a clear, temper-glass board.
“We consider ourselves a home decor accessories company that makes functional board games,” Jonathan Silva says.
Perhaps their most well-known collection is their vintage bookshelf line, which packages well-known games like Clue, Sorry, and Scrabble in boxes that look like colorful, fabric-bound books. The collection began with three titles as part of a one-time collaboration with home furnishings company Restoration Hardware in 2011 but was such a hit it quickly became a staple of the product line-up.
Today the collection includes 19 titles—including Boggle, Chutes and Ladders, and the Game of Life—with three more in development. When the packaging for each is designed, the color is carefully chosen to fit in with but not duplicate the colors already used, enticing buyers to display and use the games, rather than stashing them unseen—and largely unplayed—in a playroom closet.
“I keep the entire set on my bookshelf and my kids take them down every single day,” says Addis, who often plays a round of Yahtzee with her kids before school. “These are the embodiment of what we do.”
The company’s most recent growth spurt began in 2020 when the pandemic hit, and people stuck at home were suddenly hungry for the exact kind of entertainment and distraction the company’s games provide.
“Wholesome family fun was a trend,” Jonathan Silva says. “COVID changed our business forever.”
In 2023, co-founder Mike Doyle decided he was ready to step down. So on January 1, 2024, Jonathan and Kerry bought out his share in the company and took on the roles of chief executive and chief operating officer. Their father has stayed on board as president.
Today, WS sells games in 14,000 stores across the country and revenue has tripled since 2019. The staff has increased from 7 to 22, though they still manage to fit into a small office, where the shelves, tables, and walls all sport samples of existing games or prototypes of products under development.
About half the games they produce are for general sale and half are exclusives designed in collaboration with major brands like L.L. Bean and Anthropologie. And the siblings have no plans to slow down, adding 30 new products each year and keeping alive the legacy and spirit of the business their father and his partner created nearly 25 years ago.
“We’re really just continuing their dream and their visions,” Jonathan Silva says.
Plus, adds Addis, “What’s more fun than coming to work and making games?”