EA details plans for Hasbro brands
Nerf and Littlest Pet Shop arrive in the fall for DS and Wii, followed by multiplatform versions of Monopoly, Scrabble, and more.
When Electronic Arts picked up the rights to a variety of Hasbro games last August, it had a slew of new toys to play with it when it came to licensed casual games. Specifically, the agreement gave EA's casual gaming division the chance to make games based on brands like Monopoly, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Nerf, Tonka, and Littlest Pet Shop.
Today EA Casual Entertainment revealed the first concrete glimpse of its Hasbro plans, announcing that the first two console and handheld games to come from the deal will be Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf N-Strike. Both games are being developed by EA's Salt Lake Studio, and will see release this fall on the Nintendo DS and the Wii. A PC edition of Littlest Pet Shop is also in the works.
Littlest Pet Shop will allow players to run their own pet stores, "building relationships" with their products and unlocking new animals, accessories, and playsets. EA will sell three different versions of the game, each with unique pets.
As for Nerf N-Strike, the game is based on the line of soft foam-firing toy guns, and includes perhaps the least deadly deathmatch modes of all time with single and multiplayer modes. EA is also promising a new Nerf blaster that will allow players to "take the action outside as their controller transforms to fire actual NERF darts."
Naturally, EA's plans for the Hasbro brands extend beyond those two titles. The publisher also confirmed that it is working on multiplatform versions of Monopoly and Scrabble, as well as other games to be revealed by the end of the year and a full slate of mobile titles and Pogo.com online offerings.
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53 Comments
oh great. more shovelware for the Wii.
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Littlest Pet Shop?! SWEET!
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EA didn't acquire the DnD license from Hasbro? So, that means Atari still holds onto it? Great... either no good DnD games for a whilst or else Atari will try to milk the DnD license and push out utter tripe. Either way, not good for RPG fans.
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wow, that's about all I could say, because that sure doesn't sound exciting
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NERF games... the point of nerf is so you can shoot stuff without getting hurt. Which games provide in the first place. So what is the point of a nerf game?
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Is there anything not published by EA?
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Littlest Petshop -- awe... I am surprised this isn't on XBLA. They would probably make a killing on selling downloadable pets.
I was getting real upset until the end when they confirmed that Monopoly is in the works. They would have to be brain-dead not to release this game. They should make Monopoly cross-platform for PS3, PC, and Xbox360. It would be awesome to have all three types of gamers battling it out on the virtual board.
I'm excited about Monopoly because I just don't have enough people that live near me any more to come and play. So this gives me an online option to play with the people I want to play with.
EA better not screw Monopoly up or there's gonna be some pay-back!! Errrrrrr.....
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@raverrozza "monopoly and scrabble are two perfect examples of games which if you want to play you should be forced to venture into the outside world and find some friends to play it with you on an actual board and not on your own or over the internet."
The issue is after college a bunch of us dispersed and are all over the US. We get together like once a year but still play online, so despite local muliplayer being better (I agree) it isn't always practical, and I prefer both as an option. As a note, Scrabble better be WiiWare that can use the DS for your tiles so you CAN do local multiplayer...
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Hey, where's GI Joe? They haven't had a game since the NES. Seems like an obvious one to me...
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"EA will sell three different versions of the game, each with unique pets."
.
Why sell people just one game when you can chop it into pieces and sell each piece as a game. Monopoly might be fun if EA doesn't ruin the experience with in game advertising.
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monopoly and scrabble are two perfect examples of games which if you want to play you should be forced to venture into the outside world and find some friends to play it with you on an actual board and not on your own or over the internet.
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Scrabble and Monopoly would make great Xbox Live Arcade games but chances are that they're gonna make 'em into store-bought games just to make money. Greedy punks.
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I would love to see some classic board games hit consoles. Monopoly, Yahtzee, Risk, Life, Stratego.....ect. As for the whole Nerf control idea, I guess that by making it so you can use it apart from the console, they figure on selling a lot of them to replace the ones that kids break outside. Good for marketing, bad for parents.
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trdrstv - That was called Nerf: Arena Blast. I found that back in June in an old stack of my friends PC games. We booted that up using Vista and played for about 15 minutes then it crashed. We both were like "Sheeeeiiiit!". What a tight game, though
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Screw Hasbro and Universal Interactive. Microprose and Origin would be great to have back. Two of the greatest of the fallen, IMO.
Lancer VI
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@ Montrealien
Hellz yeah, I'm with you I'd definitely love to see Monopoly and Scrabble on the PSN (or XBL)--call me geeky but I'd definitely download 'em in quick minute, LOL. Honestly, I noticed that's the only thing PSN doesn't have a lot of--board or puzzle-type branded games--so it'd certainly be interesting to see.
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Eh. I wish Hasbro Interactive and Universal Interactive brands would return.
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great
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if theres one thing ea knows best, its monopoly.
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Actually, a NERF game could be fun. I remember they made "NERF AREANA" or something to that effect off of the Quake3 engine and it it was pretty fun. Hopefully they can do something like that, oh, and online Risk / Monopoly would be awesome if you can also save game in progress, to be continued another night.
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Great Idea. Can't wait to see it in action.
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To all the EA bashers, pls, it is getting really old. As for the News at hand, can only by good news. Especialy if we get some sort of downloadable versions of,
Clue
Monopoly
Risk
Just those three on XBLA/PSN and we got heavy downloads. Hasbro has been smart keeping their IP is the dark for a while, time to cash in,
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uh i dont feel optimistic about this
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YESSSSSSSS
Finally, possibly risk, scrabble, and monopoly coming
wicked excited
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you guys might be getting ahead of yourself. EA has had LESS than stellar track record, specially with ANY kind of new IP. i'd wait and see if some of the Hasbro goodness translates well before i'd get my hope up!
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Monopoly+Online mode=Heaven. Nuff said.
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Monopoly is the best, Monopoly played online; even better. Just wish I could have purchased the new edition with the debit cards, it looks so much more hassle free than dealing with paper money.
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Good friend of mine who is a Playstation addict did that with his gal - she still is not really into video games but she at least 'gets it', since you have to pry her kicking and screaming away from Bejewelled on the PC.
Bejwelled today.
Puzzle Quest tommorrow.
Then you've won.
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XBLA version of Monopoly would be amazing. I would play that all the time.
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Monopoly online would be pretty cool i love that game
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Hasbro and EA are going to feel the next recession hit hard. You can see them preparing for it. Valve is still the reigning champ. Instead of buying other brand names that sheeple gravitate toward, Valve innovates new games that most hardcore gamers want to play.
Everyone should boycott EA and Hasbro and put them where they belong, in a hole.
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console-deity
I can see why you're gonna be single for the rest of your life. I bet e-Harmony banned you, didn't they?
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Hmm, I wonder if the Wii Zapper will work with this...


@console-deity: Hmm...I'll be surprised if you're not single with that attitude of yours toward women.
Seriously this is how you think: "...the girls who like bejewelled and crap like that suck and I'd never date an under-evolved woman of that sort. If a girl wont play a real video game I think she should be stuffed in a garbage bag and taken to your local landfill." ?
That's not even taken out of context. Pathetic. Learn to accept differences. Oh and by the way, Bejeweled involves a lot more thinking than your brain can seemingly handle. Next we'll be hearing from you that Tetris is crap.
Let us know when you're out of the Dark Ages.
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I just remembered that i got a old game called Monopoly Party to the old xbox. What was i thinking. Ha Ha Maybe i shut try to find it.
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It's better than a game about the movie Juno. I guess it's an underage modified version of "Hot Coffee"? Then a lot of collect the pregnancy test, vomit in the toilet, find a job, press the button press the button repeatedly to pop out the baby? I'd rather play the nerf game.
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Yahtzee,Scrabble on a platform, i dont see it, maybe Risk or Monopoly.
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The Nerf Game might be Fun I will rent it on the Wii, but I don't really know how good it will be because it is EA.
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A Nerf video game!!!! I CARE!!!!!!! not! An XBLA monopoly would be awesome, though!
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Hopefully an XBLA version of Monopoly. I would get that.
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You know, I used to be one of those 'If you want a board game, GET A BOARD GAME' sort of people until I realized something. Girls who happen to hate video games often tend to LOVE that stuff, so often the best way to get your girlfriend to quit complaining about your video game addiction (short of not playing, which is unthinkable) is to show her Scrabble or Sudoku or Bejewelled or something. They LOVE it. Good friend of mine who is a Playstation addict did that with his gal - she still is not really into video games but she at least 'gets it', since you have to pry her kicking and screaming away from Bejewelled on the PC. So devious. So very, very devious...soon, they will join us. All of them. Oh and for those who tend not to read very carefully I realize some girls DO like video games, I am talking about the ones who DON'T. You have to do those 'don't drink the bleach' disclaimers these days, unfortunately. LOL
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Risk
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Give me something on XBLA or forget it!
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what about a go board game (pente, gomoku, etc.)
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Hmm, online Monopoly and Scrabble? This could turn out to be fun.
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monopoly again? good
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my girlfriend has been picking up the ps3 controller for the first time in her life playing games like sudoku and super rub-a-dub she would be absolutely thrilled if scrabble came to the ps3....her favorite board game of all time!
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Yahtzee!!! I used to play the bejezus out of the old PC version of Yahtzee. Great game that is fun with a few friends.. Hopefully that is one that gets some love.
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lots of board games could be coming to xbox live, sounds good.
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