You’re right--it doesn’t really fit.  It reads as if Sony paid for “product placement” in the lead sentence.

Unless there was more to the article, in which the young designer credited computer games as his inspiration.

It’s interesting that Hasbro picked it up so quickly.

I expect it comes from the fact that 90% of the people, when they hear of a youngster (or anyone, for that matter) inventing a game, immediately assume it must be a video game.  I mean, no one plays board games anymore, do they?  :-)

I was coming here to post largely the same as Larry did

I agree.  I would have assumed video game until I saw the words Hasbro based on this generation of gamers.  Cardboard, plastic, WOOD??...whats that again?

But the title of the article is “Student designs winning board game.” Wouldn’t the “board game” phrase be enough of a clue for the newspaper’s audience that you’re talking about, you know, a board game?

Eric

What is boardgame?

Ben,

I had understood that at many papers the journalist got to write the lede and the article, but the editor selected the headline.  Has that practice changed?  I’ll also reinforce the experience that games defaults to the computer variety.

I’ve also noticed a tendency for lifestyle pieces to have a ‘you thought I was going to write about x, but really this is about y’ quality in general.  I find it annoying, but it seems it is practically a rule of the genre.