Attractions Management understands the launch of Hasbro's Monopoly attraction in London is back on the cards, with 14 August 2021 slated as the official opening date.
The attraction was announced in 2019 with an intention to open in 2020 – but plans were put back due to the pandemic.
Hasbro has partnered with international theatre producer Selladoor Worldwide to open the live-action version of the iconic Monopoly board game.
Called Monopoly Lifesized, the participatory gameplay attraction will combine elements of the board game with escape rooms and team challenges.
Teams of up to six players will move around a full-sized board, participating in challenges as they 'acquire properties' and 'earn money'.
Monopoly Lifesized will consist of a 75-minute gameplay segment on a 15 x 15m board, featuring the iconic properties, with each board capable of hosting between eight and 24 people split into four teams, all playing against each other.
Each property square will have a full-sized location-specific room behind it that players enter to participate in a challenge to ‘acquire’ that particular property.
The challenges will be a mixture of physical and mental puzzles and games that will test players’ skills and lateral thinking and will be themed appropriately for the square in question, featuring either some historical or current day relationship with that part of London.
Producer Tom Beynon said: Teams will be pitted against each other in this live-action game – they'll step off the board and engage in a challenge that is themed on individual squares."
Located at 213-215 Tottenham Court Road, in a property recently vacated by Paperchase, the attraction will occupy three floors and 22,000sq ft and will also include a retail outlet selling a wide range of Hasbro game merchandise and a destination Monopoly-themed bar and restaurant called Top Hat.
The attraction will be created by a team drawn from across the immersive theatre, tech and escape room worlds: creative producers are Tom Beynon and Paul Mansfield, with set design by Tim McQuillen-Wright – designer for Secret Cinema experiences Stranger Things, Blade Runner, and Moulin Rouge.
Escape room games specialist Clockwork Dog has been appointed as gameplay consultants and to work on operations.
For the project, Hasbro partnered with Selladoor Worldwide's new gaming division, Gamepath.
David Hutchinson, CEO of Gamepath, said: “For us, Monopoly Lifesized represents a major entry into a growing and exciting marketplace.
"Audiences want to consume live performance differently, and what better way than to jump into a lifesized version of the world’s favourite board game?
"Members of our creative team have been working their magic to fuse an experience that puts our audiences centre place on the board and brings together our theatrical routes with innovative, digital and immersive storytelling.
"After everything we’ve missed out on individually and collectively and given the decimation of our high streets and city centres, it’s really exciting to be launching this now – we hope that we’ll be able to contribute to the recovery of Central London, and bring people back together in our fabulous capital with a major new attraction in a major new destination building.
"It should feel like a whirlwind tour around London," explains Hutchinson, "Participants will get to experience the sights and sounds of iconic parts of the city."
Liz Terry, editor of
Attractions Management, said: "With tourism markets rebounding globally and a seemingly insatiable demand for local attractions, Hasbro and the team at Monopoly London have made a smart move with this launch.
"Just as custom versions of the actual Monopoly board game have been created for a series of major cities around the world, so the attraction could be similarly themed. We see Monopoly Lifesized as having the potential to develop into an IP which has the same opportunity as operations such as Madame Tussauds to be customised to local markets around the world."
