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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Facebook Pulls Plug On Scrabulous


I'm sad; my favorite application on Facebook has been pulled. And while I am not a good player, I do enjoy the interaction with my "friends". I was in the middle of a few games and I expect to never finish them.

Hasbro has the right to their intellectual property and Scrabulous was absolutely a ripoff of Scrabble. But Hasbro needs to give Scrabulous their kudos for capturing new media interest and taking Scrabble to the next generation. It raised their brand and made Scrabble popular again.

"Earlier this year we heard the Agarwall brothers had been offered a substantial check from Hasbro and other companies with a claim to the Scrabble brand (there are several), but that they were holding out for more. We still think that in the end, they'll walk away with something, since they've got a wildly popular app on their hands. But the takedown certainly removes a whole lot of leverage, and makes it possible that they'll end up with zilch."

I hope they come to terms and I get my online game back again. I hate to lose, but I hate worse not playing.