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EA dropped a press release today to announce the overwhelming success of the family games resulting from their long-term agreement with Hasbro, with 2 million titles sold globally since launch.
EA came by the Apple Store to show off their upcoming game releases for the holiday, one of them being Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
EA’s Casual Label today announced new details on their upcoming Monopoly title. The game will be coming to Mobile phones, PC, PS2, Wii and Xbox 360 and will include the ability for four people to play simultaneously in a party mode. It will support both offline single player and multiplayer modes.
Facing fines of up to 10% of their sales on DS displays, Hitachi Display and Sharp are to be investigated by the Fair Trade Commission, Japan’s fair trade group. According to eNews 2.0:
… the institution said on Thursday that the two electronics companies would be investigated because they were suspected of fixing prices of display panels for Nintendo’s DS portable gaming devices. The Commission’s investigators have already searched a few factories and offices owned by Sharp and Hitachi’s display unit, Hitachi Display.
Electronic Arts today announced nine Hasbro games that will be hitting a variety of platforms over the next year.
Littlest Pet Shop and NERF “N-Strike” are both set to come to the Wii and DS this fall, with Littlest Pet Shop also making its way to the PC. Scrabble, Monopoly Here and Now and Yahtzee Adventures are all being developed for mobile phones. Electronic Arts is also developing Yahtzee, Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition, Trivial Pursuit and Operation for their online casual gaming service, Pogo.com.
“EA and Hasbro want to give families new ways to enjoy games; we want give them a new way to come together, connect, spend time and have fun around the TV or online,” said Chip Lange, Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Hasbro Studio. “Bringing the spirit of these games to life as video games has allowed us to create really unique and creative experiences for families and friends of all ages to enjoy together at home or online.”
“We are thrilled that together we are bringing our great toys and games to life in the digital world and providing consumers with new and dynamic ways to enjoy our amazing brands,” said Mark Blecher, Hasbro’s Senior Vice President of Digital Media and Gaming.
EA will be showing off a number of the games at the upcoming Toy Fair in New York later this month. Hit the jump for the full release with game descriptions.
EA and Hasbro have made nice, and will be soon be making sweet, sweet games together. Know what happens when deals like this go down? Novelty schwag gets sent out, that’s what. To remind us all that their union is a sign that good times are near, they sent out an EA-themed edition of Monopoly. Like, real Monopoly. It’s all very strange. Like how it’s not Battlefield 2142, it’s 2142 Battlefield. Or how you can buy Spore for $US200. Presumably so you can tell them to get a move on. Want To Play EA/Spore Monopoly? [GameSetWatch]
A couple weeks back Hasbro worked a deal to buy back their casual game licences from Atari, leaving me wondering what big plans they had in store for their classic board game titles like Scrabble, Monopoly, and Yahtzee. Well now we know. Hasbro has now entered into a licensing agreement with EA, granting them the exclusive rights to develop titles based on several of the company’s intellectual properties for consoles, mobile, handheld and PC platforms. Not limited to board games, the agreement also includes popular children’s properties like Nerf, Tonka, and the Littlest Pet Shop. “Our toy and game brands have been family-favourites for decades, and aligning ourselves with EA will result in broadening the reach of our brands through the ‘re-imagining’ of these beloved entertainment icons in all key digital categories,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s Chief Operating Officer.
There’s a scary word. Re-imagining. “What if the Monopoly pieces had guns?” No re-imagining please!
