If you’ve ever wanted to put an apartment building in the middle of Burnaby’s Deer Lake Park, now you can with this brand-new Burnaby-Opoly board game.
Created by Canadian-owned and operated Outset Media through a partnership with Walmart Canada, the limited-edition Monopoly-based board game will feature crucial aspects of the city like the Burnaby Public Library, The Amazing Brentwood shopping mall and Deer Lake Park. You can even buy Hastings Street for a very reasonable $250.
You’ve got to be careful though, if your token goes one space past the Riverway Golf Course property you’ll wind up in the Traffic Jam square, Burnaby-Opoly’s version of the ever-infuriating jailhouse.
Jared Clarkson, public relations coordinator for Outset Media, says Burnaby is one of over 100 cities across Canada that have had their own Monopoly games created. One of Outset Media’s more successful games, a trivia game all about Canada is what led to the city-specific Monopoly games.
"There's all these great things about Canada and people were playing this game and learning about Canada so we wanted to come up with ways in this partnership with Walmart Canada to let people know about those communities," Clarkson said.
Clarkson went on to say the games have been especially successful in smaller communities thanks in part to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
"Obviously the last year has been a big change for a lot of people,” he said. “They're trying to connect to the communities that they're from and sort of come together and support each other but also celebrate some of the parts of where they live."
Jean-Paul Teskey, senior vice-president of Outset Media says the response to the games has paved the way for the creation of more community and city-specific Monopoly games
“The support that communities across Canada have given these games has made it possible for Outset Media to add dozens of additional cities and towns in brand new games that will be released throughout 2021!” Teskey wrote in a recent press release.
Burnaby-Opoly will be available the week of April 5 at Walmart locations and online at Walmart.ca.
