The popular property-building board game, Monopoly, has been given a 21st century makeover by the toy-making company Hasbro and Internet search bigwig Google - with the Wednesday release of the global online version of supposedly "the biggest land grab of 2009"!

Monopoly's real-time version, called 'Monopoly City Streets,' allows players to create an online profile, after which they are given a substantial amount of make-believe $3 million. The game uses the Google Maps platform to enable players "buy" any street in the world.

The gargantuan 'multiplayer' game - available in English, French, Spanish, Dutch and German - will remain online for four months, during which players can amass as much property as possible - only for "bragging rights," of course, not for any tangible reward!

However, when the game site went live Wednesday morning, heavy user-traffic swamped the servers, making the game inaccessible.

Talking about the virtual collapse of the 'Monopoly City Streets' site due to overload, Hasbro spokeswoman Pat Riso said: "We did anticipate an opening rush. But it has absolutely surpassed our expectations."

A post by a server administrator read: "We are in the process of increasing our firepower and expect to be running more smoothly within the next several hours. Thanks for your patience as we work as fast as we can to resolve this and get everyone playing and trading on Monopoly City Streets."