Monopoly game "old fan" Trump enters the chain game, and plays another chess in the crypto track

Author: Zen, PANews

US President Donald Trump, known for his "businessman thinking", has been involved in many fields such as real estate, reality shows, vodka, mortgages, NFL, aviation, bottled water, steak and even board games. His business territory is also constantly spreading in the cryptocurrency industry - after the development of tracks such as NFT, DeFi, stablecoins, memecoin and crypto mining companies, Trump has now extended his tentacles to the chain game field.

According to Fortune magazine, citing two people familiar with the matter, Trump is working with business partner Bill Zanke to prepare a real estate crypto game with his brand as the core, which is similar to Monopoly Go! 》. For this "senior enthusiast" who launched a board game similar to Monopoly thirty years ago, with the support of blockchain and cryptocurrency, it is both unexpected but also expected, but it does bring a wave of turmoil to the long-silent chain game track.

Real estate tycoon Trump: Monopoly game "old fans"

In May 1989, Donald Trump collaborated with veteran board game company Milton Bradley to launch the board game "Trump: The Game", which was inspired by Monopoly and Trump's own career as a real estate tycoon. Milton Bradley, then president of Milton Bradley, once said the game was set in high-risk bets, deals and Trump's bestseller "The Art of the Deal" released in 1987. Trump also filmed TV commercials for the game and put on the promotional slogan "What matters is not winning or losing, but winning or not!"

In a campaign to build momentum before the official release of Trump: Games, Trump said he would donate an undisclosed portion of the game's revenue to charities for cerebral palsy and AIDS research, and helping homeless people. Before the official release of the $25 board game, Trump and Milton Bradley were ambitious and believed that it would sell 2 million copies, but the final sales were 800,000 copies, which was far below expectations.

The reason is, on the one hand, because the game is directly named after Trump, it is easily regarded as a money-making tool for the rich, and the public does not know that part of the income is used for charity; on the other hand, market propaganda misleading makes it considered a copycat version of "Monopoly". Trump believes that the main reason is that the game itself is too complex, with the rulebook being more than 12 pages long and lacking public appeal. Despite the special statement in the follow-up ad: "Mr. Trump's proceeds from "Tr.: Games" will be donated to charities", game sales remained sluggish. In addition, the Huffington Post reported in 2016 that Trump's previous statement of donating board game revenue to charities cannot be confirmed, and Trump and related entities declined to comment.

In 2004, after Trump's reality show "Apprentice" was a big success, the Parker Brothers re-release "Trump: Game". The new version introduces Trump’s classic mantra in “Apprentice”: “You’re fired!” and puts out the slogan “Making millions requires wisdom, making billions requires Trump.” However, even with Trump's celebrity effect, the game of the new bottled old wine ended up being mediocre.

It should be noted that Milton Bradley was acquired by toy and entertainment giant Hasbro in 1984 and merged with another subsidiary of Hasbro, Parker Brothers, in 1998. The brand was later abandoned in 2009 and used the parent company name and eventually adjusted to Hasbro Games. Therefore, the IP of this Trump-authorized board game should be owned by Hasbro.

"I always thought Monopoly was a great game, and many people were interested in it." In 2006, Monopoly game "true fan" Trump tried to launch a prime-time reality show based on Monopoly. Trump will star in a collaborative role with documentary producer RJ Cutler, and Hasbro will be a partner in the program. However, the plan finally died in the development stage and was not bought by any TV network, nor was there any official program name or episode number announced.

After more than thirty years, the Monopoly game has been returned to the

Monopoly game based on encryption technology

Now, Trump has returned to the Monopoly game again, but this time he brought it to the chain.

According to Fortune, several sources revealed that Trump is working with his business close friend Bill Zanker to develop a crypto-based real estate-themed game, which is expected to be launched at the end of April this year. The game is for "MONOPOLYGO! 》 (Monopoly Go!), players earn game coins by moving pieces on virtual Monopoly boards and building buildings in digital cities.

Zanker is behind the chain game project and had initially planned to launch the project before the 47th presidential inauguration, people familiar with the matter said. Zanker can be regarded as Trump's "leader" into the cryptocurrency industry, and Trump's NFT project was facilitated by his repeated suggestions.

According to Zanker, when he suggested Trump launching NFT in early 2022, although Trump was quite interested in "former presidential artistic image NFT", he was unwilling to use the term "NFT" and would rather call it "digital transaction card on computers." At the end of the same year, Zanker promoted the matter again, and Trump agreed readily: "Many friends say I shouldn't do it, but I like it, let's do it."

Zanker also plays an important role in Trump's memecoin project TRUMP. According to the memecoin website, the remaining tokens after the TRUMP token ICO are held by CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight LLC, accounting for 80% of the total supply. In the registration document of "Fight Fight Fight LLC", Zanker is listed as the main contact person.

Regarding the specific details of the crypto game project, Zanker spokesman Kevin Mercuri only revealed that they are developing a "game". Mercuri denied the claim that the game would have any similarities with Monopoly Go, saying that the relevant news was just "rumor". Previously, DTTM Operations, the entity responsible for Trump's trademark, applied to expand Trump's name to various virtual products and NFT-related services. But Mercuri declined to disclose whether these trademark applications are directly related to the project and how blockchain functionality will be integrated into the gameplay.

In addition, whether the upcoming chain game will be based on "Trump: Games", which has been launched for more than 30 years, is also full of doubts.

According to sources, in May last year, Zanker approached Hasbro, hoping to buy back the Trump: Games IP. But Hasbro told Zanker that it no longer owns the copyright of the game, which has been around for more than 30 years. However, a spokesperson for Hasbro, the original Monopoly board game developer, said the company has not authorized Monopoly IP to Trump-owned organizations for cryptocurrency investments.