Scrabulous is one of the most popular Facebook Apps out there, with a reported 594,924 daily players. Hasbro and Mattel are trying to get Scrabulous shutdown, claiming (quite possibly correctly) that it violates their copyright on the game as it is very closely based on the game Scrabble

This could be an extremely short sighted decision. Hasbro has been trying since 1999 to establish an online gaming presence (see this story, Hasbro, Go2Net Team Up for Games.com) and still nothing has been developed for Scrabble.

A better business decision would be partner with the developers to continue to develop the application, or buy them out. Even Wired asks the question:

Even though the Mattel and Hasbro would probably do well in court (against both Facebook and the app’s developers), one can’t help but wonder why buying the application hasn’t been explored. After all, they’ve previously occupied a minimal footprint in the social networking world and the application nets about half a million users a day.

There could be an underlying issue here with their newish partnership with EA to develop games, and that could be the crux of the situation. Hasbro may not have had a choice but to pursue the lawsuit.

For the over 2 million registered users of Scrabulous, and the 594,924 active users this will be a very disappointing development, but lets hope Hasbro and Mattel get their act together and replace Scrabulous with something just as good, if not better.

Links:

• Scrabulous Facebook Application

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