Hasbro has formed a far-reaching alliance with Electronic Arts that will enable EA to create digital games based on Hasbro board games such as Monopoly and Scrabble.  The games will target casual gamers, who tend to be older and are more likely to be female than hardcore electronic gamers who demand the latest complicated graphics-heavy immersive games for sophisticated systems such as the PS 3 and the X-Box 360.  With the advent of the Nintendo Wii, casual gaming, while still relatively small, is growing rapidly (online casual games for the PC are likely to grow by 35% this year to $512 million), and Electronic Arts, which has neglected this category, is hoping to catch up thanks to its deal with Hasbro, which will provide it will a number of extremely well-known board game properties that should appeal to the casual gaming audience.  Under terms of the agreement any of Hasbro's popular board game properties already licensed to other companies for electronic versions, will go to EA as soon as the license expires and the property reverts to Hasbro.

EA plans to create a wide variety of games that reach across a number of platforms including mobile phones, PCs, handheld devices, consoles (like the Wii), and the Internet.  EA plans to release the first games based on these Hasbro properties in 2008.  As part of the agreement Hasbro also gets the right to create toys and games based on Electronic Arts' properties.