Making the most of Monopoly Go's false start

gamesindustry.biz:

Monopoly Go has been an instant success for Scopely. The game launched in April, and topped the US mobile charts in August. And this is during a time when the mobile market has been so hostile that mobile publisher Playtika has given up on new releases for the moment because it believes they just aren't economically viable.

In speaking with Scopely's GM of Monopoly Go and VP of product Massimo Maietti, the game's success in the face of a challenging market is the first thing we ask about. Maietti acknowledges the market dynamics have been unfavorable for many, but says Monopoly Go was well-suited to the landscape it launched into.

"I think very few brands in the world have audiences that come into the game experience expecting, wanting, and having a predisposition to play with their friends and families," Maietti says. "We thought if we could harness that built-in interest with a game that would be truly social so you would feel OK inviting your friends and family because the game is for everybody, the game has a chance to really scale.

"That was one of the reasons we were very much interested in Monopoly as a brand from the beginning. We felt it still had yet to find its most mature interpretation on these platforms."

That most mature interpretation has proven elusive, even to the team behind Monopoly Go.

In fact, the Monopoly Go tearing up the charts these days is not the original. Maietti and the team actually started work on a very different Monopoly Go.

"It was a synchronous PvP game that required a lot of skill, a lot of commitment, but also as part of that genre was really hard to play with your friends because you might not be online at the same time and things like that," Maietti explains.

The results