The popular application was taken off the social networking site in the US and Canada last month after Hasbro filed a lawsuit against game designers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla of India for trademark and copyright infringement.
The brothers agreed to block Scrabulous in the US and Canada but said that the UK could continue playing.
The Scrabulous application is still available in India, where Mattel has filed a lawsuit claiming it breaches its intellectual property.
Jayant Agarwalla said that he was astonished by Facebook's action given that no decision has been made yet in the Indian court.
Hasbro and Mattel's complaints follow the launch of their own official Facebook version of Scrabble, created by Electronic Arts in the US and Canada and RealNetworks elsewhere.
The Agarwalla brothers have created an alternative word game, similar to Scrabble, called Wordscraper, which they hope will survive legal challenges because it uses new rules and circular tiles.
Scrabulous was played by about 600,000 people on Facebook while Mattel's version only has about 70,000 active users.
Comments
I'm not sure Mattel are going to get much brand kudos out of this legal action. Surely the interest gained in the social networking version of the game has had a positive effect (in fact re-invention) of interest in their board games?
This ultimately comes back to my theory that big brands need to release control, especially when it comes to social networking! Getting fixated on not making enough profits from the presence of Scrabulous will only result in bad-business-karma!
I know already there are some facebook groups rallying support to bring the online version of the game back to Facebook! I'll be interested to see how the consumer voice rattles those brand-side.
In the meantime, expect a lot of very confused looking people during lunch and break times, not knowing quite what to do as a replacement therapy for their daily fix of Scrabble.
This is really bad for a small but influential group of intelligent (on the whole) and motivated networkers. Not the sort of bunch of people that you'd expect a massive corporation to want to put on cold turkey - However the main Scrabulous website still works - with a speed scrabble option (which the missus loves!) and www.Isc.ro is becoming more popular but is way short of being any good as yet.
Better idea would have been to buy Scrabulous from the developers and rebrand it; maybe redistribute it in real-world format. Wasted opportunity by Hasbro/Mattel.
@Amod - That would have been too simple wouldn't it ! I have heard that the Official version on-line is absolutely useless (it has a horrid green background)
I understand the trademark issues and Mattel's need to protect their rights.
However, I'm not convinced they've thought through the customer experience. Scrabble's official version is not good gameplay. Their CD version isn't either. Scrabulous was actually better game play and really took advantage of all those things we love about social networking.
Anyway, we've now moved on to wordscraper so no, I won't be playing the official version anytime soon.
What a shame our game histories, scores and game buddies (many of whom are just buddies on scrabulous and not facebook friends) could not have been incorporated somewhere else.
It's disappointing that the the web 2.0 culture embraced by the general public has not been embraced by the powers that be. I'm not against Mattel owning the rights to the game and coming to an agreement about that. But to take away our games, whilst we are playing. Not allowing us to play with our friends across the Atlantic. And not communicate anything to us at all as players. That's barmy in this day and age.
As a religious scrabulous player, I must be honest I was completely confused when I logged onto Facebook at lunchtime today and couldn't find my active scrabulous game waiting for me! I am a great lover of scrabble and do have the board game at home, but the fabulous thing about scrabulous is that I could play with my brother in South Africa while sitting at my computer in London - I completely understand the reasons and legalities behind the law suit, but surely scrabulous must be great advertising for the boardgame scrabble? It's hardly a competitor!
This is just another great example of how big corporations don't understand social networking. So many clients say they want to 'get in' on social networking but they don't understand the basic premise behind it - that you have to trust your consumers and take direction from them rather than dictating your brand to them.
Maybe Facebook should have tried harder to sort this out, too. I really only use Facebook to play Scrabulous with a few friends around the world. My Facebook use will now decrease considerably.
Comments
Jon Haywood - 26/08/2008
I'm not sure Mattel are going to get much brand kudos out of this legal action. Surely the interest gained in the social networking version of the game has had a positive effect (in fact re-invention) of interest in their board games? This ultimately comes back to my theory that big brands need to release control, especially when it comes to social networking! Getting fixated on not making enough profits from the presence of Scrabulous will only result in bad-business-karma! I know already there are some facebook groups rallying support to bring the online version of the game back to Facebook! I'll be interested to see how the consumer voice rattles those brand-side. In the meantime, expect a lot of very confused looking people during lunch and break times, not knowing quite what to do as a replacement therapy for their daily fix of Scrabble.
AwallafaShagba - 26/08/2008
This is really bad for a small but influential group of intelligent (on the whole) and motivated networkers. Not the sort of bunch of people that you'd expect a massive corporation to want to put on cold turkey - However the main Scrabulous website still works - with a speed scrabble option (which the missus loves!) and www.Isc.ro is becoming more popular but is way short of being any good as yet.
Amod Munga - 26/08/2008
Better idea would have been to buy Scrabulous from the developers and rebrand it; maybe redistribute it in real-world format. Wasted opportunity by Hasbro/Mattel.
AwallafaShagba - 26/08/2008
@Amod - That would have been too simple wouldn't it ! I have heard that the Official version on-line is absolutely useless (it has a horrid green background)
Helen Keegan - 26/08/2008
I understand the trademark issues and Mattel's need to protect their rights. However, I'm not convinced they've thought through the customer experience. Scrabble's official version is not good gameplay. Their CD version isn't either. Scrabulous was actually better game play and really took advantage of all those things we love about social networking. Anyway, we've now moved on to wordscraper so no, I won't be playing the official version anytime soon. What a shame our game histories, scores and game buddies (many of whom are just buddies on scrabulous and not facebook friends) could not have been incorporated somewhere else. It's disappointing that the the web 2.0 culture embraced by the general public has not been embraced by the powers that be. I'm not against Mattel owning the rights to the game and coming to an agreement about that. But to take away our games, whilst we are playing. Not allowing us to play with our friends across the Atlantic. And not communicate anything to us at all as players. That's barmy in this day and age.
Roxanne Kesson - 26/08/2008
As a religious scrabulous player, I must be honest I was completely confused when I logged onto Facebook at lunchtime today and couldn't find my active scrabulous game waiting for me! I am a great lover of scrabble and do have the board game at home, but the fabulous thing about scrabulous is that I could play with my brother in South Africa while sitting at my computer in London - I completely understand the reasons and legalities behind the law suit, but surely scrabulous must be great advertising for the boardgame scrabble? It's hardly a competitor!
Sara Chapman - 26/08/2008
This is just another great example of how big corporations don't understand social networking. So many clients say they want to 'get in' on social networking but they don't understand the basic premise behind it - that you have to trust your consumers and take direction from them rather than dictating your brand to them.
Ben Kay - 26/08/2008
Maybe Facebook should have tried harder to sort this out, too. I really only use Facebook to play Scrabulous with a few friends around the world. My Facebook use will now decrease considerably.