Destroy Your Friendships With Queen's Special Edition Monopoly Set

Long-serving Queen guitarist Brian May has announced that the venerated UK rockers will get their own branded Monopoly set in 2017 as the culmination of a low-key collaboration that has spanned more than a year.

As EW reports, May confirmed the news via a statement posted to the website, where he posted pictures of the game's box and its included pieces, writing that the band had been "very secretly developing Queen Monopoly for over a year", and that it would be released in May.

"I'm excited," May wrote. "It was a blast working on it — like making an album! We hope you love it!"

According to an earlier post from May written at the weekend, the big announcement was "scuppered by a leak to Amazon", prompting the sudden reveal of the game's pieces and box design on his website.

"Somebody leaked this info!" he wrote. "I should have leaked it myself! I think Queen fans will love our new Monopoly game."

Rather than trading in property, the board squares will represent key moments in Queen's career, which according to the Daily Star will run the gamut from their first show at Imperial College in 1970 through to their final outing with the late, great Freddie Mercury (Knebworth Park, 1986).

The set includes six theme-appropriate pieces each representing a song, album cover or video clip — a bicycle (Bicycle Race), a radio (Radio Ga Ga), a robot (News Of The World) a hammer (Hammer To Fall), a vacuum cleaner (I Want To Break Free) and a particularly May-esque guitar.

Queen join only a handful of well-known musicians to receive special official editions of the iconic board game, a list that also includes Elvis Presley, ABBA, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Metallica and AC/DC.

May himself has a new album, Golden Days, coming out next month. See the man's website for more details.