14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has announced that it is developing a Monopoly game for the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 2 game consoles, for mobile devices and for its online casual games portal called Pogo. The game will be released sometime during fall and is based on the Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition revision of the board game.
The instantly recognizable game known as Monopoly has had a tumultuous history, with suits and counter suits regarding the validity of the various trademarks built around it. The same can be said of the videogame ports of the original boardgame.
Initially, the rights to make electronic adaptations of the game for the PC had been bought by Atari. But with Atari facing financial difficulties last year, they decided to re-sell the rights to the original holder, Hasbro Interactive. Electronic Arts sensed a good business opportunity and decided to pick the rights to Monopoly and other Hasbro products with the intention of creating a range of casual videogames based on those products. Until now Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf N-Strike games were announced for mobiles and handhelds.
It's rather difficult to see how an Electronic Arts Monopoly would achieve resounding success. There are a lot of Monopoly and Monopoly like games on the market and most niches, from games that adhere rigidly to the original formula to games that take a lot of liberties with it, are filled. It's likely that EA will keep the basic gameplay very close to the board game version and will try and push the game as a family friendly pass time, which justifies the inclusion of the Wii in the supported platforms and the exclusion of the PlayStation 3.
My pet theory regarding the Monopoly game from Electronic Arts is that the company executives loved the irony of EA developing a Monopoly so much that they decided to go ahead, even if there might be little commercial reason to do so.