Don’t pass go… without checking out Winnipeg-centric Monopoly game By: Martin Cash Posted: 6:10 PM CDT Wednesday, Sep. 18, 2019

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This article was published 17/09/2019 (1928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s a new Winnipeg-centric take on the classic Monopoly game, called Winnipeg-Opoly, which is on sale for a limited time but you’ll have to hurry if you want to buy one.

That’s because this light-hearted celebration of our community is limited to 700 copies, which are expected to sell out before you can pass Go.

With the Tinkertown property on the board worth more than Bell MTS Place property you know it’s not about deep local insights.

The Canadian puzzle and board game company, Outset Media, which has the exclusive rights to distribute Monopoly-branded games in Canada, is in the process of rolling out more than 40 versions in towns and cities across the country. There’s even a Flin Flon-Opoly.

‘We started down east and it was a phenomenal success in places like Moncton and Miramichi and St. John and this year we expanded it across the country’ – Jean Paul Teskey, senior vice-president of Outset Canada, maker of the Winnipeg-Opoly game

Jean Paul Teskey, Outset’s senior vice-president, said Walmart has had a successful run of marketing such locally specific Monopoly games across the U.S. and approached Outset last year to to do the same in Canada.

“We started down east and it was a phenomenal success in places like Moncton and Miramichi and St. John and this year we expanded it across the country,” Teskey said.

Outset has the exclusive Canadian rights to distribute Monopoly spin-off games in an arrangement with the U.S. company Late for the Sky which has held those rights in the U.S. for several decades.

A limited press run of 700 copies of Winnipeg-Opoly were produced and will be sold only at Winnipeg Walmart stores.

“They are a collector’s item,” Teskey said. “Once they’re sold out, they’re sold out.”

The Winnipeg game plays like a traditional Monopoly game but instead of the “Jail” space on the board, there’s a “Traffic Jam” space, which suggests it may just be a seasonal representation that’s tied to road repair work.

But you know Winnipeg-Opoly is just a lark when Mediterranean Avenue and Baltic Avenue — the traditional low rent properties at the beginning of the game — are replaced by Bell MTS Place and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.

Teskey said the game, which sells for $29.93, is not designed to be be a high-margin money-maker, but a local promotion.

The cross-country roll out is piggy-backing on the revival of old-school board games.

Outset Media, which handles more than 2,000 puzzles and games, doesn’t have any offerings in the digital space.

“We are all about the traditional games… get together and sit down with each other and look at each other and be social which I think is really important these days,” he said. “The last few years we have had a really fantastic revival of board games and puzzles. It has been really a strong category within the toy industry.”

Board game cafes, like the successful Across the Board Game Cafe in Winnipeg, are springing up across the country helping to fuel that trend.

Winnipeg-Opoly features landmarks and local events such as Tinkertown, Culture Days, Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, Doors Open Winnipeg and others.

Outset Media designs, distributes and manufactures board games, card games, toys and puzzles and has been awarded “Supplier of the Year” by the Neighbourhood Toy Stores of Canada seven times.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Martin Cash
Reporter

Martin Cash has been writing a column and business news at the Free Press since 1989. Over those years he’s written through a number of business cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) in fortunes of many local businesses.

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