It's a global Monopoly

2008-08-20 21:49

Paris - Thanks to a popular vote, Canada and China are the most heavily represented nations in a new global edition of Monopoly being released next week that sees 22 cities up for grabs and offers green-friendly utilities and new forms of transport.

Three cities each from the two nations are among 22 selected by more than five million fans of the game asked to vote online among 70 towns for the ones they wanted to see on the upcoming global edition of the board-game, which was first edited in 1935.

Of these, Montreal received most votes and will be paired with Latvian capital Riga as the most expensive property group on the board, US firm Hasbro said on Wednesday ahead of the August 27 launch of the game.

Next in rank on the World Edition board are Cape Town, Belgrade and Paris.

Last-placed of the 22 was Poland's Gdynia and no German, Indian, Russian or Scandinavian towns made it at all.

While the principle of the game will remain the same as when it was initially dreamt up during the 1929 Depression - making money by buying, renting and trading real estate - the board for the first time will be identical worldwide, with players giving up paper currency and using credit cards instead.

Apart from the switch from streets to cities as prime real estate, the new edition too replaces old utilities such as the "Electric Company" or the "Water Works" with "Wind Energy" and "Solar Energy" and offers air, cruise and space travel instead of merely railways.

The following cities were selected:

Dark Blue: Montreal, Riga

Green: Cape Town, Belgrade, Paris

Yellow: Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Beijing

Red: London, New York, Sydney

Orange: Vancouver, Shanghai, Rome

Magenta: Toronto, Kiev, Istanbul

Light Blue: Athens, Barcelona, Tokyo

Brown: Taipei, Gdynia

- AFP