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article imageHasbro Tries To Shut Down Facebook's popular Scrabulous Game

Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  Chris V. (cgull) in Internet | 10 comments | 1034 views
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Facebook Shuts Down Scrabulous For Good
Hasbro sends DMCA notice to Facebook to remove 'Scrabulous' application
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Hasbro, owners of the popular game Scrabble, is taking action against Facebook’s most popular online game Scrabulous. Hasbro wants to shut down Scrabulous and gave notice to Facebook two weeks ago.
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Hasbro owns one of the most popular games in the world, Scrabble. It has sold more than 100 million sets of the game in more than 121 countries and in 29 different languages, according to Wikipedia. Yet it is not satisfied; it wants the popular online game in Facebook “Scrabulous” to be taken down.

If you are on Facebook, you must have heard of this game. Almost everyone at Facebook has this addictive and fun type of game. It boasts nearly 569,000 daily active users and there are a millions of other users who play the game occasionally, also.

Fortune’s Josh Quittner calls this move by Hasbro as idiotic. “Is Hasbro just a stupid Potato Head? Or is this a brilliant game of Stratego?”

He suggests others should start a Facebook group to save Scrabulous, and now there are about a dozen groups petitioning for the game to stay online. The one here has about 78 members so far.

Scrabulous co-founder Jayant Agarwalla, 21, confirmed that Hasbro has sent them a notice to Facebook to shut it down two weeks ago. Their lawyers seems to be working on the case.

Hasbro should have started the game itself, but it didn’t and others like the Scrabulous makers did it so well it couldn't help but become popular. Now Hasbro want to shut down small players and block creativity. The law will side Hasbro for now, and it is a shame a popular game will be taken down at Facebook. Just like Verizon stifling Vonage, Hasbro is stifling Scrabulous and in the end the users lose.
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  • avatar Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  David Silverberg
    		#1
    Is Hasbro insane? Don't they want to spread the word about Scrabble to a generation that may not be gravitating to it like the baby boomers did? It's only in Hasbro's best interest to have Scrabulous spread across the Net, which makes me wonder if they're truly not in touch with today's young online generation.
    quote
  • avatar Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  Chris V. (cgull)
    		#2
    @ David Silverberg
    Is Hasbro insane? Don't they want to spread the word about Scrabble to a generation that may not be gravitating to it like the baby boomers did? It's only in Hasbro's best interest to have Scrabulous spread across the Net, which makes me wonder if they're truly not in touch with today's young online generation.
    First they criticize internet and then when it becomes popular they want a piece of pie. They could partner with this guys and create a great online game. Many people who play this game love to have Scrabble boards at home. So, I just don't know what they are thinking.
    quote
  • avatar Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  Emily January
    		#3
    NOOOOO!!!! I am addicted to Scrabulous. It makes my day fun and worth living! They can't do this to me!
    quote
  • avatar Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  Chris Hogg
    		#4
    @ David Silverberg
    Is Hasbro insane? Don't they want to spread the word about Scrabble to a generation that may not be gravitating to it like the baby boomers did? It's only in Hasbro's best interest to have Scrabulous spread across the Net, which makes me wonder if they're truly not in touch with today's young online generation.

    I see your point Dave but I have to disagree. Scrabble has gained huge popularity through Facebook, but with millions of people on the network who can play the game for free, Scrabble is losing a lot of (potential) revenue.

    I hate to see a great app get taken down for something like this, and I agree it's crazy for Scrabble to lose such huge presence online, but in the end, it's a channel they can't monetize and they do own the rights to the game.

    Hasbro is getting flogged because this is being seen as Big Corp. trashing the everyday person. But if the roles were reversed and it was some little-known guy who made the game, people would be saying it's not fair to him to lose out on revenue from a great idea.

    I agree with cgull that Hasbro should have done it themselves online, but again, they can't sell units when millions can play it online free.
    quote
  • avatar Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  Chris V. (cgull)
    		#5
    Chris from day one everybody was saying Hasbro will take it down and now they did. Hasbro will never give this game free so in the end Scrabulous will be shut down.

    @ Emily January
    NOOOOO!!!! I am addicted to Scrabulous. It makes my day fun and worth living! They can't do this to me!
    It will be tough, thats the only game I like there -- it is a great concept to play with friends and very interactive.
    quote
  • avatar Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  David Silverberg
    		#6
    The way I see it, the online game will only spark interest in the board game. It's like a YouTube teaser getting you interested in the full show. Hasbro should be thankful Scrabulous is spreading the word about Scrabble, and yes, it's their intellectual property, but if they want people to know about Scrabble, this is the way to do it. They should be working on partnering with the Scrabulous inventors instead of trying to quash them.
    quote
  • avatar Posted Jan 12, 2008 by  Chris Hogg
    		#7
    @ David Silverberg
    The way I see it, the online game will only spark interest in the board game. It's like a YouTube teaser getting you interested in the full show. Hasbro should be thankful Scrabulous is spreading the word about Scrabble, and yes, it's their intellectual property, but if they want people to know about Scrabble, this is the way to do it. They should be working on partnering with the Scrabulous inventors instead of trying to quash them.

    The problem is: It's more than just getting people interested in the game -- they can play the full thing and don't need a real-life version. The way I see it, they probably allowed it to stand for awhile to get people hooked. They aren't stupid, and this game has been on Facebook for awhile. Just enough time to get people hooked, then pull it.
    quote
  • Haley January Eckels Posted Jan 16, 2008 by  Haley January Eckels
    		#8
    @ Emily January
    NOOOOO!!!! I am addicted to Scrabulous. It makes my day fun and worth living! They can't do this to me!


    At least you'll stop kicking my butt! :)

    I just wish they could work out a profit sharing deal so it can stay up and Hasbro still gets their money. Greedy bastards.
    quote
  • avatar Posted Apr 7, 2008 by  David Silverberg
    		#9
    And the Scrabble-Facebook saga continues...
    Find out why here.
    quote
  • avatar Posted Apr 7, 2008 by  Chris V. (cgull)
    		#10
    @ David Silverberg
    And the Scrabble-Facebook saga continues...
    Find out why here.
    Thanks David, I wanted to test it, but here Mashable.com said the following about this:

    At this time it is still up-and-running with over 600,000 daily users, while the new official Scrabble is at sub-2,000. Part of the official game’s problem may be that it is still in beta, or that it is only supposed to be played outside of the USA, but one suspects a lot of it has to do with it being buggy still. Reports are that it is accepting fake words, does not follow any of the official Scrabble dictionaries and offers no way for players to challenge each other. Apparently some players of this version have suggested Real just copy the Scabulous version so that they can get it right. Ouch.

    Scrabble could pay the guys instead of trying to develop it again. Scrabulous is a well designed game.
    quote

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