In just a few months’ time, Malta will have its own Maltese version of the immensely popular game Monopoly, with Maltese places and locations and also with the Maltese language on the cards used by the players.
It will be a very interesting way of promoting Malta and should prove to be very popular with Maltese migrants and tourists who visit Malta and want to return to the scene of their holiday.
Monopoly Malta was launched on Thursday at a press conference that was attended by US Ambassador Molly Bordonaro, Michel Matschoss from Winning Moves and brainbox ltd managing director Sabrina Mulligan.
brainbox ltd have been appointed exclusive creators and distributors for Monopoly Malta worldwide.
A board comprised of people from various sectors, including tourism, the environment, culture, the media, history, property and projects, will decide on the final 22 locations in the Maltese Islands that will appear on the board. These locations will be evenly spread around Malta and Gozo (Gozo gets two locations) and also evenly divided between the northern, central and southern parts of Malta.
Every Monopoly board (for there are Monopoly boards for many countries and even many cities around the world – so it’s not just London locations, as many may have thought) has around four railway stations. In Malta’s case these will be replaced with locations linked to transport.
Focus groups were consulted to arrive at a final shortlist, which will be submitted to the board for its decision. The board will reach that decision by the end of this month and production will then commence in Ireland. The game will be shipped to Malta and will be available here in October.
A number of the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards will be customised and all cards will in both Maltese and English. The place names on the board will be in the Maltese language, using Maltese font throughout.
Distribution of Monopoly Malta – which is exclusive to brainbox – has been confirmed in both Australia and America.
In the run-up to the launch, a large-scale televised charity event is planned, in which a number of players who are key people in Maltese business development will play the first game of Monopoly Malta – the difference being that they will be playing with real money and the proceeds will, of course, be going to charity.