Monopoly Go: Pass 'Go' or Fall Flat?
By Nikita Tolokonnikov - April 19, 2023
Monopoly Go was released just a week ago, a game that Scopely has been working on for a long time and has been in soft launch for nearly a year.
The game's launch coincides with the recent announcement of Scopely being acquired by Savvy Games Group, part of the Saudi government's Public Investment Fund, for a whopping $4.9 billion. This makes it the 6th biggest gaming company acquisition (assuming the Microsoft & Activision Blizzard deal goes through).
The questions on my mind are:
Will Monopoly Go be another hit in Scopely's portfolio?
Can Monopoly Go maintain its position on top of the grossing charts?
Considering I recently wrote an article about Coin Master, a game performing exceptionally well, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Monopoly Go is essentially Coin Master wrapped in a Monopoly theme.
Performance
According to AppMagic, Monopoly Go has accumulated about 5 million downloads since its release worldwide, with $2 million in revenue as of April 18 2023.
What's noteworthy is that Monopoly Go has claimed the top #1 spot in download charts across many countries, thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign, the likes of which I haven't seen in a while.
Scopely is acquiring users in large quantities in the US and in countries such as Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.
This could mean that the soft launch went exceptionally well, and they're confident it will be profitable in the long run, or they want another massive launch under their belt and hope for a long revenue tail.
While it seems unlikely that anyone would spend tens of millions on user acquisition unless confident in profitability, there are plenty of examples in gaming history, including Game of War and the more recent Zen Match, which has seen declining revenues as the number of downloads has dwindled.
But let's put business aside for a moment and talk about the game itself.
What's in the game?
At first glance, Monopoly Go's core features are almost identical to Coin Master. Of course, we can't overlook that the board gameplay differs from a slot machine. However, the core experience is practically the same, and watching a piece jumping over a board will never be as exciting as spinning a slot machine.
Let's compare them point by point:
The core gameplay of both Coin Master and Monopoly Go can be summarized as "You press a button, spend energy (dice), and get rewarded with varying amounts of gold.
The ultimate goal of the game is to progress through the meta-game, which is identical: upgrade 5 buildings 5 (6) times to complete a location and unlock the next one.
Social play is also the same: you can attack other players' cities and steal their money by landing on special railroad tiles.
There's an identical meta-game mini-loop of collecting cards, completing decks, and obtaining additional rewards.
This aspect is generally inconsequential to the player's experience in both games, as I completed exactly 0 collections after playing for a week, and it primarily serves as a tool to give filler rewards.
The economy is built similarly, with ever-growing rewards and increasing prices, which still feels fantastic.
You can increase your "bet" to spend your energy (dice) faster and enable auto-play to avoid paying attention to what's happening, just like in Coin Master.
From the very beginning, Monopoly Go has implemented all live ops systems that Coin Master had, including:
Progressive events that reward players with consecutive rewards based on activities.
Constantly running tournaments with another track of progressive events.
Short-term varied events usually give players some additional rewards.
Finally, Monopoly Go follows the same structure of offers as Coin Master, always having 2-4 different offers enabled, 1-2 of which are progressive offers with additional free rewards for each step you pay for.
The differences
While many aspects are the same, are there any differences?
Monopoly Go features a daily goals system, pushing players to complete three consecutive goals to receive extra rewards and filling a bar with weekly rewards.
It's not very innovative, but I believe it makes playing a bit more meaningful every day.
Now, how similar or different is Monopoly Go to the original Monopoly game?
It's very loosely based on the classic game. Yes, there's a board, a piece moving between tiles, and you throw dice. But everything else has been adapted to fit the Coin Master model.
This means people who downloaded Monopoly Go to experience the original game or relive the nostalgia of playing with family or friends won't find it here.
All systems have been changed to support an ever-growing economy, changing locations, and constant grind with auto-play.
It's not necessarily bad, but only a name remains from the original experience.
Competition
Many games have attempted a similar approach but lacked the intellectual property to support it as Monopoly does.
The most notable mentions are:
Board Kings - An older game that created an engaging and casual board game experience. However, it was based on different principles and didn't try to recreate Coin Master's core loop initially.
Dice Dreams - A somewhat similar experience to Coin Master, but it uses dice to represent the slot machine without the actual board game experience.
Piggy GO - In my opinion, the best attempt that took everything Coin Master had and tried to wrap it differently (not Piggy, though). While my game designer mind (which is as subjective as they come) loves Piggy GO's interpretation of the core experience, the game didn't grow nearly as much as Coin Master.
It seems that if the Monopoly Go team learned anything from these games, it's that they shouldn't try to reinvent the wheel and create an exact copy of Coin Master with slight alterations instead. Was it the right choice?
Target Audience
Overall, Monopoly Go doesn't seem to create a unique enough experience, but does it have to?
On one side, we have many games very similar to each other that work perfectly. And on the other, the fact that Monopoly Go likely appeals to board game players rather than gambling players might be the crucial factor here.
Appealing to an audience that may have never seen Coin Master before means they'll experience a completely unique product that has already proven itself.
Similarly, when World of Warcraft was actively adding features suspiciously similar to mobile character-collecting RPG games, for WoW players, they were all new features they had never heard of.
User Acquisition
In the current market conditions, when a company like Playtika makes statements suggesting they won't be launching new products due to high CPIs and will focus on growing existing games, Monopoly Go has perfect positioning.
I think it's getting easier to assemble a team that can deliver an amazing product. However, it's almost impossible to predict whether an amazing product can scale to become a successful business.
With the world's most popular board game being the title of Monopoly Go, user acquisition should not be an issue at this initial stage. Given low CPIs and even if the LTV is not that high over the long term, the game could be pretty profitable.
But is this enough for long-term success?
The prediction
To conclude, let's consider these three questions:
Could, and more importantly, should they have made this game differently?
Will the Monopoly brand be enough to not only attract players but also keep them engaged?
With all pros and cons, is this the right product to release and bet on?
In my opinion, the game definitely lacks a design touch. It seems that the original product vision, or at least a vision from some point, became "Let's make the best adaptation of Coin Master." Once again, my designer mind can't accept that it's the best decision for any game.
I believe there's value in deconstructing every feature of another game, understanding its goals, and designing a new feature to fulfill these product and design goals in a way that is aligned with the original vision for your game and enhances it in the best way.
Regarding the Monopoly brand, I have no doubts that it will bring millions of players to the game and continue being the cornerstone of its success. However, if players are coming to experience the original Monopoly, they're in for a big disappointment.
That will surely scare away some players, and even for those who stay, will it be enough to keep them playing for years if new downloads start dwindling over time?
So with all that said, do I believe this game will succeed?
I know it sounds bland, but frankly, as always, it's hard to say. We'll see a period where Monopoly Go rises to the top and earns big bucks, but I have a hard time imagining such a secondary-in-design product succeeding long-term.
Will the design team be up for the challenge of evolving the game into something of its own, or will they continue following the Coin Master strategy?
How long will the current proposition be sufficient to keep players engaged and retained?
Is hopping around the same game board as appealing as spinning a slot machine?
We'll see the answers to these questions as 2023 unfolds, and I wish the team the best of luck. However, I can't help but feel a little disappointed as an avid player in what the game has to offer.