Game On With the Beatles' Monopoly

Posted on Oct 24th 2008 10:00AM by David Chiu
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Ever wondered what it would be like to play Monopoly in a Beatles world? Now you don't have to anymore: Games manufacturer USAopoly has just recently put out Monopoly: The Beatles Collector's Edition, the latest version of the popular board game with a Fab Four twist.

"It's a game designed for the Beatles fan specifically," says Maggie Matthews, USAopoly's Vice President of Marketing, to Spinner, "and we think it's a fun addition to that fan's memorabilia collection."

According to the product description, the goal here is to gives fans "the opportunity to create their own private anthology by collecting Beatles albums." Properties on the game board include every Beatles album released during the Fab Four's time together, from 'Please Please Me' to 'Abbey Road'; the spots where "income" and "luxury tax" are usually on the original game are now represented by the songs 'Taxman' and 'Ticket to Ride,' respectively. And the pewter tokens are shaped to represent references to Beatles songs including a hammer (from 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'), a walrus ('I Am the Walrus') and a strawberry ('Strawberry Fields Forever').

Longtime players will notice one difference with this version from the original game: there is no money but rather "love," as in "The love you take is equal to the love you make," (a reference to the 1969 Beatles song 'The End'), says the product description.

The idea of a Beatles take on Monopoly began a few years when USAopoloy, which manufactures specialty versions of the original board game, got a license to produce Beatles' collector puzzles. "As we considered the many excellent images available to us for puzzles," says Matthews, "we could imagine how great a Monopoly game could be."

The Beatles game involved the input of several of USAopoly's employees who are also fans of the group, according to Matthews. "We [also] consulted with an array of Beatles fans outside the company," she says, "to create what we hope is the most compelling execution of the game -- while staying within certain parameters that Hasbro [which holds the trademarks to Monopoly] requires, such as leaving the four corner squares of the original game board untouched ['GO,' 'In Jail/Just Visiting,' 'Free Parking,' 'Go to Jail']."

Asked about the response from the Beatles' Apple Corps, which approved and licensed the game, Matthews says, "We've been told that they are very pleased with the outcome!"