EA reinvents Monopoly

By Tom Bramwell Published 24 April, 2008

Mini-games, simultaneous play.

EA's upcoming Monopoly game - part of a multi-game partnership with Hasbro - will feature a special fast-paced family mode full of mini-games when it comes out later this year on PC (Pogo.com), PS2, Wii and Xbox 360.

According to Newsweek, "The Richest" will reduce the popular board game to bursts of 20-30 minutes where up to four players play at once. Sorry, enhance! Enhance the popular board game. Probably.

Each round will begin with a multiplayer mini-game based on a Chance or Community Chest card, after which the game will roll one die for each player, with the winner of the mini-game getting to pick whichever number they want out of the results.

The game will then give them ownership of that number of random squares. Any vacant properties will come under their control, but any occupied squares will mean having to hand over some property as a payment to the previous owner. Presumably the winner will be the person who has the most property at the end.

Mini-games detailed so far include one about breaking out of prison, and another where you race around train tracks trying not to overshoot the stations, as Newsweek puts it, and there will be unlockable themed boards for dedicated players.

Hopefully you will also get to play the original Monopoly! Although you could always go round your Nan's to do that instead. Or play Halo.

Check out our lonely-looking Monopoly Wii screenshot if you like. We won't judge you.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Peew971 #1 4 years ago

    Trying to reinvent a classic game = definite failure. Add EA and it's a catastrophy.
    What people want is a classic XBLA/PSN Monopoly, not some shitty full-game. Remember Tetris Evolution?

  • moggsy #2 4 years ago

    Strange they aren't planning a PS3 version, although I'm sure no PS3 owner is actually that bothered. But why would you do a version for every console except the PS3?

  • swisstony #3 4 years ago

    peew, have you played it yet then?

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #4 4 years ago

    I find it amusing the EA are publishing "Monopoly".

  • urban #5 4 years ago

    but what about all the cheating and haggling over properties?

  • Bitkari #6 4 years ago

    I love Monopoly, but I won't play this.

    You need to be able to cheat in Monopoly, and argue with family members. Without this meta-game, there's much less fun to be had.

    Conversely, I'll never play Scrabble online as everyone cheats.

  • Peew971 #7 4 years ago

    @ swisstony: I know that question, I've used it before myself... The point is, reinventing a great classic just doesn't work, it's been proven (Tetris Evolution and Bomberman Zero come to mind) so the sensible thing is to release the clasic game as it should be, with added online elements.

  • Slamhound #8 4 years ago

    Hey, kwijibo is a word!

    But yeah, if you can't cheat (or, as is most folks prefer to rationalise it: set "house rules";), then there's no point playing Monopoly. The entire game is based about being a backstabbing bastard.

  • kangarootoo #9 4 years ago

    I have to agree with swisstony on this one. Cynical as this initially makes me feel, the suggestion that you can't reinvent a classic game successfully is just nonsense. A game is a game, and if its fun its fun. Its heritage and influences don't really matter.

    Perhaps you could say "its not as good as proper Monopoly", but if its not identical to Monopoly then people will differ in their opinions, as they do with all games.

    "Halo isn't as good as Gears of War" says someone else somewhere (they are of course quite wrong ;) ). Its all the same.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #10 4 years ago

    Agreed with the custom rules.

    My personal favourite is paying all the taxes and fines etc into the centre and then anybody who lands on Free Parking gets it (and then we give them the cash, ho ho ho).

  • Talha #11 4 years ago

    Why? Why? Why?

    No one needs that distorted version of Monopoly. It is one thing to pad the basic, authentic game with variations. It is quite another to flog a bastard version as the new 'real' thing. They did this to SimCity, thanks to which we are currently without a decent city building sim based on current technology.

    I hope to God they retain the option to play the authentic version.

    And what's with the Wii screenshot? It is a sickly, radiation green. All these comnpanies, in the process of presenting Monopoly have never done away with the less than welcome (to me) coloring of the main board. And the properties are named after their colour. How dumb can you get? Whats wrong with plain old Trafalgar Square?

    All I ask EA is to infuse the game with graphics. I should see a mini airport with actual runway and flying planes at the airports - likewise on the train stations. Jail should be an actual Shawshank like fortress.

    But no! All they can come up with is wussy 'cyan' and 'magenta' labels, that portly auctioneer rendered in 20 trillion triangles, and insipid red houses.


    My advice? Get the current PC version of Monopoly off the internet from GameHouse- it's a small, cheap download and it is all the Monopoly you'd ever want. Or, get the Glu Mobile cellphone version, and play it anywhere either on the phone or via tv-out.
    Edited by 1 at 24/04/08 @ 10:17

  • seasidebaz #12 4 years ago

    reinvent, like monopoly party?

    infogrames already did that source

  • miiiguel #13 4 years ago

    For some reason, which I aslo don't know which, ppl seem to enjoy this kinda games, in consoles or even in XBLA, I guess. Look at UNO, you have dozens of UNO's for free in the PC world, yet XBLA scored + 1 million sales. I bet if we were commenting its anouncement, we would say "why? oh why?". But then it scored almost 10 million dolars. Go figure...

  • thedaveeyres #14 4 years ago

    MonopoLOL

  • Lebowski #15 4 years ago

    Can't they just put normal Monopoly on XBLA for 400 points? Or is that too hard and not enough of a cash cow for bloody EA?

  • WinterSnowblind #16 4 years ago

    I'd totally buy an XBLA version, but this is actually a full priced game?

  • kangarootoo #17 4 years ago

    They could do both surely?

    People seem to be missing that creating this new title does not in any way mean you can't just go out and buy monopoly in one of the its many existing forms. its just something new, and if its fun at the end then its all good imo. And if I fancy playing normal monopoly I still can. So its not something to get all flustered about.

  • AOFanboi #18 4 years ago

    People who treat the horrid mess of a game that is Monopoly as a sacred bovine, not to be improved by trying to morph it into something playable ought to go to http://www.boardgamegee k.com and seek wisdom.

  • L42yB #19 4 years ago

    Sounds like Mario Party meets Monopoly...

    /is not convinced

  • Krun #20 4 years ago

    So not actually monopoly at all then.