Rare has teamed up with Hasbro to craft a Monopoly variant based off the shared world adventure game Sea of Thieves!
Wheel and Deal on the High Seas!
In this version of Monopoly, players will be trading highway robbery for plundering on the open seas as they purchase, barter, and bid on famous locales and characters from the Sea of Thieves franchise.
Once players have acquired sets of properties, he or she can start building shops and taverns (this editions version of houses and hotels) in order to 'plunder' (i.e. get rent) from other players. Chance and Community Chest have also seen a makeover in the form of Fortune and Message in a Bottle cards.
A Standard Thematic Edition
While this edition is visually pleasing to look at and utilizes locations and themes from Sea of Thieves, I do feel that there is some lost opportunity by making this edition a skin-swap of vanilla Monopoly. For example, a large part of the video game is navigating a shared open-world with other players competing for resources. This dovetails quite nicely with the gameplay of Monopoly. However, allowing players to choose between the game's main factions--Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, and the Merchant Alliance--and getting in-game bonuses or perks is not seized upon.
Additionally, Rare and Hasbro could've allowed each player to have a ship, something that is central to the video game, in the board game, and having upgrades available that affect in-game play. Granted, this would require balancing to avoid run-away victories, but it just seems like slapping some updated graphics on an 85 year-old board game leaves something to be desired.
(Plus, the use of paper money vs. in-game currency such as gold or doubloons is also a missed opportunity.)
Rare game is Rare
What is interesting about this edition of Monopoly is that it will be released as a 'Rare Store Exclusive'. This means to purchase this particular edition will require prospective buyers to create an account on www.raregames.store. While releasing ANY edition of Monopoly guarantees a base-line of sales, I question the exclusivity of a product that doesn't have much of a market to begin with. Are there really so many foaming-at-the-mouth fans of Sea of Thieves and Monopoly that such a product would warrant availability in only one location? Let alone for the exceedingly step price of $50!
(Maybe the allure of an in-game digital pet is enough to get players to buy it?)
That aside, since Sea of Thieves launched in March 2018, it has seen 15 million players as of January 2021. But the question becomes how many of those players enjoy the game enough to purchase merchandise based upon the franchise and, going a step further, would want a copy of Monopoly based on that franchise.
That aside, if it is a edition of Monopoly that interests you, or you have a penchant for video game themed Monopolys I do think in a few years it will, perhaps appropriately enough, become 'rare'.
To purchase a copy of Monopoly: Sea of Thieves, click the link below:
