Rumor: EA brings Monopoly & Scrabble to XBLA

by Xav de Matos { Feb 12th 2008 at 4:15PM }

360Sync.com noticed some interesting language from an EA press release earlier today, specifically the line:

"EA also is developing new Monopoly and Scrabble ®(in North America) titles for multiple platforms, as well as other titles that will be announced later this year."

Wait a second, could that mean that EA will be bringing Monopoly and Scrabble to XBLA? While no one is talking, we think it would be an amazing idea. Seriously people, Monopoly on Live is teh hotness.

[Thanks, xenocidic]

Tags: ea, monopoly, scrabble, xbla, xbox-live-arcade

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dunnypop @ Feb 12th 2008 4:22PM

both games are a no brainer.
it took them long enough, broad games work surprisingly well.

Etchasketchist @ Feb 12th 2008 6:27PM

That's sexist. Or a typo. Either way you should be ashamed of yourself.

Viridium @ Feb 13th 2008 8:43AM

Scrabble, OK fair enough. But Monopoly is the worst and most stupid board game EVER. Thankfully there are already some adaptations of actual fun board games, like Carcassonne or Catan.

Josh @ Feb 12th 2008 4:28PM

they, along with the makers of the chess game, need to come up with a way to make games that can be played long term. i have friends who have different gaming schedules than me, and if we could make moves while signed on at separate times, it would be oh so money!

scrabble and chess saved games between players - do it, developers! give them support, microsoft! these games are becoming hits on platforms like facebook.. let's extend the concept of console gaming even further!

Paranoised @ Feb 12th 2008 7:13PM

The chess game that was recently released has that feature. I didn't try it myself but I read/heard about it somewhere.

Paranoised @ Feb 12th 2008 7:13PM

The chess game that was recently released has that feature. I didn't try it myself but I read/heard about it somewhere.

Josh @ Feb 12th 2008 7:18PM

i only took a glance at it, and did not notice that feature listed. i'll look at it again. if that's fact, then i do hope that sort of thing is implemented for scrabble!

Halwende @ Feb 12th 2008 4:32PM

Agree - teh hotness, but I wonder how will they make a Monopoly session not last for hours

xenocidic @ Feb 12th 2008 4:35PM

right off the bat, not having to do all the manual calculations and count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, "FREE PARKING!!!" would shave off a lot of time right there =)

Tony @ Feb 12th 2008 4:49PM

Not having to calculate that stuff saves a hell of a lot of time. I've played some games on a more recent PC version and for two players you can be finished in about an hour. Obviously the more people the longer it'll take, but it won't take a whole damn day anymore lol.

Etchasketchist @ Feb 12th 2008 6:33PM

The only way to make a game of Monopoly not take hours and hours is to play by the actual rules. That means no Free Parking loot, and you auction off properties that players opt not to buy. You calculate all the luxury tax and "repair costs" cards and you do all the math with the mortgages correctly. And you make people pay 50 to get out of jail even if they've rolled 3 times. And no bonuses for landing directly on Go. People make up all these quirky rules for the game and then they wonder why it's no fun and takes forever. If you do it by the book it moves along with a nice pace and it's all over in an hour or two.

xenocidic @ Feb 12th 2008 7:06PM

more good points etch., and more things that are made worlds easier by automatic calculations. (figuring out the 10% unmortgage interest was always a pain)

stukorn @ Feb 12th 2008 4:32PM

Monopoly would be so sick online. I have been meaning to get another copy of the board game. I sold my one many years ago.

Peff @ Feb 12th 2008 5:00PM

Scrabble would be pretttty hot. it would be good if scrabble would know if words you put down are actual words and not make you look it up between turns. that would save some time.

mike @ Feb 12th 2008 5:11PM

scrabble online hmm. great idea, but whos gonna play without a dictionary right beside them lol. I would imagine turns with like a 30 second time limit would be ideal for the game.

Monopoly, bah who cares. Monopoly is such and old classic, its only fun when you play with your buddies. playing randoms wont be very fun since its mostly a luck game and people will be co-conspiring with trades that screw you.

Bravo6 @ Feb 12th 2008 5:17PM

About time. I've been saying for years they needed to add a bunch of classic board games to the arcade.

Killer @ Feb 12th 2008 5:52PM

Monoploy on Live! YES!

I call the Car!!!

Wilson @ Feb 12th 2008 5:58PM

I'll take the Shoe! :3

DemonGSides @ Feb 12th 2008 10:31PM

Dibs tophat.

todd @ Feb 12th 2008 6:00PM

YES! Been waiting a looong time for this.

ChromaTick @ Feb 12th 2008 6:05PM

It always amazes me with so many great boardgames out there, people still get excited about Monopoly and Risk.

These are two of the last games I'd want to pick up and play.

But hey, that's what makes the world go round. :)

Etchasketchist @ Feb 12th 2008 6:39PM

Do you think the people who want to play these games are:

a. fans of the tabletop board gaming genre

or

b. fans of their own childhood memories and pop culture

ChromaTick @ Feb 12th 2008 10:16PM

Etchasketchist:

My guess would be more b than a.

I'm definitely a tabletop board game fan. I've got nearly 100 games in my collection. I definitely cut my teeth on Monopoly and Risk when I was a kid, but there are soooo many games out there with much better mechanics than these.

Don't get me wrong, I know there is definitely a desire for these games out there and it certainly makes good business sense to put them out on the XBLA. My dad's favorite game is still Monopoly.

I'm just happy we got Catan and Carcassonne on the XBLA first! :)

ChromaTick @ Feb 12th 2008 10:16PM

George Arauz @ Feb 12th 2008 7:24PM

Board games on a tv just dont seem the same.

phant0mgrave @ Feb 12th 2008 7:36PM

Monopoly would be SO awesome!

MadMup @ Feb 12th 2008 8:40PM

I've been begging for Scrabble on XBLA since I got my 360.

Please make it work with the messaging pad!

Magic Whiskey @ Feb 12th 2008 9:18PM

If my normal group of six pals buy Monopoly, i'm in. Otherwise I'm mostly just backing Scrabble here..I luvs it.

Mr Cool @ Feb 12th 2008 9:27PM

Agreed Monopoly on Live is teh hotness!

w00t!!!!

Amber @ Feb 12th 2008 11:49PM

I'm willing to bet Scrabble will have a built in dictionary. I played it on the PC once and it did, so I can't see why it wouldn't on the XBLA.

BlackBeltJones @ Feb 13th 2008 3:22AM

Sounds like a good idea to me, but there has to be bendable rules. They need to allow people to trade properties in monopoly and I don't even want to go into how many different versions of Free Parking rules I've played.

zlionsfan @ Feb 13th 2008 9:50AM

If they model it after the PC versions of Monopoly that were released, it will have some rule flexibility (although you should keep in mind that if you're planning to play quick games online, it could take considerably longer to find a match because people will look for specific rule setups).

The World Cup version of Monopoly was particularly interesting.

I played Scene It a couple of times, and it was really easy to play on the 360. Never played the board game, so I can't compare it to that.

Ryan @ Feb 13th 2008 10:42AM

Scene It! on the 360 was pretty different than the board game. In fact, isn't the entire board game aspect of it completely nonexistent on the 360 (I.E. there's no board, no rolling dice, no moving pieces)?

Kamizar @ Feb 13th 2008 7:17AM

What's this I hear about EA buying more developers and then switching around their internal sectors?

Peff @ Feb 13th 2008 9:30AM

Board games on the gaming system have been huge hits. i remember playing Clue on the almighty Sega Genesis. it was insane. mostly cause of the animations of the murders happening. and not having the monotonous self rolling and counting of spaces made it more fun and quick