Monopoly cheats, your reign of terror could finally be over. The latest version of the classic board game is voice activated and Mr. Monopoly is in charge of all transactions.
On sale in the United States on July 1, the Monopoly Voice Banking game negates the need for the traditional paper money and features voice technology in order to complete the game’s major functions.
Now, instead of having to count your cash to make a purchase or pay rent on a property, a player can simply push the button on their token to connect to the microphone-enabled Top Hat speaker and say “Buy St. James Place” and the cash will be taken from their account.
Mr Monopoly will also remember who owns what, so if a player issues a command like “Pay Rent on Marvin Gardens,” it’ll deposit the correct player’s account while also removing it from there renter’s.
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There’s also no more Chance or Community Chest cards, with Mr. Monopoly – aka Rich Uncle Pennybags – handling all that too. You can also press the token button to check your balance and the top hat will respond to you in kind.
As well as bringing the Parker Brothers’ game into the era of Siri and Alexa, Hasbro reckons this will speed up the gameplay as well, perhaps trimming hours off those epic battles where people refuse to quit and mortgage kidneys in order to survive.
Of course, it’s all going to be largely dependent on the effectiveness of the voice recognition. If players find it necessary to repeat themselves in order to help Mr Monopoly understand, then things could become a darn sight slower and even more frustrating.
There’s also privacy in mind, with the Mr Monopoly AI assistant stored locally, meaning there’s no need to connect to the Wi-Fi network. This is particularly prevalent given the game is commonly played by children.
The electronic version of the game is now available to pre-order from Wal-Mart in the United States for the reasonable price of $30
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.