Facebook now has vaporware. After a lot of huffing and puffing at the beginning of the year, Hasbro and Electronic Arts are finally getting ready to unveil their official version of Scrabble on Facebook. Today, they announced that the Facebook app EA has been working on for more than six months will be launched later this month, although a version on Pogo (EA’s online casual gaming site) is available today.
There is a Facebook Scrabble app in private beta (see screen shot at left), but the company is still testing it. It is not clear what is taking EA so long. After all, this is just a Facebook app, not a fully-featured video game like Spore.
It is also not clear what will happen to Scrabulous, the unofficial version of Scrabble that has become one of the most popular apps on Facebook. Scrabulous, which was developed by two brothers in India, was almost shut down earlier this year because Hasbro claims that it infringes on its trademarks. Scrabulous was in acquisition talks with many different companies, including Electronic Arts (which has the domestic license to digital versions of the game) and Real Networks (which has the international digital rights), but everyone balked on price.
Rather than force Facebook to shut down Scrabulous immediately, however, Hasbro and Electronic Arts realized that they would suffer an extreme backlash if they took away everyone’s favorite Facebook game without offering up an alternative. Now that the alternative is almost here, it remains to be seen whether they will try to eliminate the competition. In response to question about what Hasbro now plans to do about Scrabulous, spokesperson Gary Selby respondsl:
Hasbro has been consistent in stating that Scrabulous infringes upon our intellectual property, and we are keeping our legal options open. Today we are focusing on the coming launch of EA’s legitimate social networking version of SCRABBLE. We have no further comment at this time on Scrabulous and our legal strategy going forward.
What is clear is that if Hasbro and EA allow Scrabulous to live, the official version of Scrabble will have a hard time gaining any traction. Real Networks launched an offical version of Scrabble for Facebook members outside the U.S. and Canada a while back, and it has attracted a grand total of only 5,643 daily active users, compared to the 451,107 people who play Scrabulous every single day.
Because of the licensing issues, the EA version of Scrabulous will also be geographically hobbled. Only Facebook members in the U.S. and Canada will be able to play each other. If you live in the U.S. and want to play a friend in London, forget about it. Then there is the simple inertia of people who may see little point in installing the official version if they and all their friends already have Scrabulous installed.
What this means is that EA’s official version of Scrabulous, which it has committed resources to develop, may have little chance of success unless EA can get rid of Scrabulous first. But if EA and Hasbro try to push players to their version of the game by forcing Facebook to shut down Scrabulous, they will still have to deal with a lot of angry Scrabulous fans. Do people love Scrabble so much that they don’t care whose version they play, or will they boycott the game in solidarity with two developers in India? We may soon find out.
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This is great news, I would like to see other old world gamers bring there games online, such as RISK.
If the new app is good they’ll have no trouble getting people moved over.
Scrabulous… isn’t their an ointment for that?
“Do people love Scrabble so much that they don’t care whose version they play”
Yes.
Whewwww…the old game will be undergoing a remake and re-marketing same like the remake movie.
Is there any limitation for Facebook to come in and basically replace apps? I imagine that would reduce the incentive for developers to create new apps if Facebook can swoop in at any time.
Why should scrabulous suffer because Hasbro was asleep at the wheel? It took them this long to come up with a competing version. That is just sad.
They only have one option… buyout Srabulous for a very small amount of money (in the $100k range).
This is a win on sevral fronts. First, they get access to all of the millions of installs that Srabulous already has. A bargain at that price.
The Scrabulous guys will be forced to sign the deal or be sued for copyright infringement. They’ll be strong-armed and have to take the deal (and as part of the deal they will be forbidden to talk about the terms).
Finally, Hasbro won’t be killed in the court of public opinion since the “little guy” was paid in the end.
@8 - $100k? — that’s probably less than their totally MONTHLY revenue.
@8 In the U.S. you can not copyright a game, including copyrighting the name. See http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html. You can only copyright specific visual or textual representations, such as the specific design of an actual game board.
@9:
They’ve stated they make $25k/month. A fair price might be in the 250-300k range.
http://www.paidcontent.org/ent.....crabulous/
Everybody love scrabble´s now is bee happy !?! How it´s work ? That is the question, but i am satisfied. Get´s play.
This + plus the blocking of Superwall are a forecast of trouble that is about to come with API’s on large platforms - IMO. The big player (owner of the platform) has to protect his customers and maintain a certain level of experience, thus having to act like a local bully on smaller developers. For now, no one notices, but when really large money will come into play there will be shouts about monopolistic positions etc. This is going to be an issue to observe for every company with high growth potential, before releasing an API.
Am I the only one who thinks that the Official Scrabble screenshot up there is ugly as shit?
hmmm…i interviewed the scrabulous makers earlier this year and they didn’t match any issues with the original creators of Scrabble. Just like any Facebook app I’m sure people will be pissed off for the first few days, get over it and go to the new app.
I have been an avid Scrabulous player, but if EA produces a less buggy, more reliable experience I will switch in a heartbeat. Plus, as a creator of trademarked intellectual property, I have to agree that Scrabulous doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on.
@1 - search for Attack. It’s the Scrabulous of Risk.
@Gebadia Smith: because it’s THEIR property and they can consciously lose as many customers and money s they want.
As soon as all the bugs are ironed out, Facebook will get a notice to take down Scrabulous… make no mistake about it, Scrabulous is dead.
So the official version only lets you play users inside the US? No international play? That is completely stupid.
People play scrabulous because it’s grass roots and isn’t all commerical and polished like the official version will be. Once the official version comes out, it’ll be much less of a draw and the scrabble phenomenon on Facebook will come to an end.
@10, Thanks for that link. http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html
“Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles”
“They’ve stated they make $25k/month. A fair price might be in the 250-300k range.”
To be honest I think they should be happy with the money they have made so far, $300,000 revenue in a year is pretty good for a game they don’t own the rights to.
You’re leaving out an important point.
The Mattel version of Scrabble on Facebook is ONLY for non-North American players.
Now the Hasbro version is ONLY for North American players.
Mattel and Hasbro are so entrenched in their branding and licensing rights that neither one can create a game that a daughter in Italy for a semester can enjoy with her mom back in San Jose, CA.
When you divide the player base into two, you don’t just kill half the potential games, you drop an order of magnitude.
Furthermore, Mattel’s version isn’t that hot. Hasbro’s version may or may not be hot, but we won’t know until it’s out of beta. But given the way monopolies think, it’s likely that they’re going to insist that people play the game the way they tell them to play it, and not the way that people want to play it.
We’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t think Scrabulous has to worry just yet.
Yehuda
http://purplepawn.com
“Scrabulous” the name likely infringes the Scrabble trademark. So, in order to keep going, they will have to change their name.
Scrabulous also needs to avoid the copyright issue: The board layout can be roughly similar, but the colors and wording cannot be too similar. Also, the tiles may need to be redesigned so the small points indicator is not in the bottom right and perhaps are a different color. In any event, the game can continue, but it can’t look or sound so much like Scrabble.
It’s a shame, but the law is on the side of Hasbro and EA (as their licensee).
Ok so first it is Slide then RockYou now Scrabulous. Way to go facebook. Your entire model is based on applications. You have now gone 3 for 3 with pissing off the app developers for you top applications. WTF is wrong with you?
I though Zuckerberg was talking to Marc Andressan. Is he listening to him? What is the deal?
Does anyone know what Hasbro offered Scrabulous? I read that it was guessed at around 10 mil - (http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/the_scrabulous_snag__money) - however that is not a figure that has been confirmed.
I think if they were offered a good deal like that and they balked then you gotta play the cards you were dealt.
I think it is pretty lame that North Americans can’t play with the rest of the world online - but I am sure that will not slow down adoption too much. Just the irrational fear that they users are playing an illegal version of Scrabble may tip the scales for Hasbro and EA.
I think if there was a deal on the table they should have taken it - money is money and a year from now whatever the deal was will look super sweet in comparison to no revenue and the title of sticking to your guns!
Cheers - Eric
quick question - who cares?
@20
Really!? i though people played it because they enjoy playing scrabble and that was the only option available…..
so the same people that play an unpolished, unbranded game, also sit in starbucks and get $5 coffees….amazing
Scrabulous is a crappy implementation of Scrabble that fails to take into account some of the most basic things even a casual player wants to have in their game. It also looks like ass.
People will move over in a heartbeat. And yes, people care about Scrabble that much.
The inability to play with people around the world would be a serious drawback for some people. And the user interface shown above looks really garish. It looks like Barbie Plays Scrabble, or something.
We are still poliching a few things and ironing out some bugs. We will then focus on assuring international game play. Finally, we will end the existence of scrabulous and sue them into oblivion. The 3rd world copyright infringers must innovate to get out of the seesspools they live in, not steal.
Good day.
Is it just me or is Facebook down? Keep getting errors when I try to load it.
@32 there is indeed a Facebook OUTAGE
Yeah, and don’t forget to proofread for typos when you do the polishing, or else that new version may well end up in the failed FB app cesspool.
is Facebook site down?
Great points by Marcin. Probably good to work harder than Scrabulous did to avoid issues early on in the process. Their value is declining with every install of the “official” version and in court they may lose everything. The win win is for Scrabulous to sell for a few million and help with the transition to the “undisputed” versions and international implementations.
@25
Please understand the situation better before commenting again.
Erick,
I think that you leave out another important point about timing of the launch.
Scrabulous launched in a time when it was easily to invite lots and lots of people and grow an application.
As TC has written about lately, the all out assault by Facebook against developers has all but killed virality.
Looks like EA has, at long last, produced and alternative, but the concept of viral is totally different today than a year ago.
With FB imposed limitations on invites (totally clunky), notifications and newsfeeds (the new soon-to-launch feeds are yet more downward pressure) as well as self imposed limitations of EA including limiting which users in the world can adopt it (direct reduction in viral coefficient here) and the lack of any existing network effect….well…
…. this dog won’t hunt.
Honestly, I don’t much care which version wins or which one is better. What I DO care about is Hasbro’s Web 1.0 retard behavior in not just buying scrabbulous and revamping their app (Whats $1 to Hasbro), gaining users and online Cred?
Big business has soo much to learn!
This is ridiculous. Why didn’t they just accept the great PR job scrabulous was doing for them and reap the increased sales instead of wasting their time creating a FB app nobody needs?
Ya’ll don’t get it. Scrabble *is* a need. There are millions of people wh play this game for hours every day, on a very serious level, often in tournaments. This is the most popular board game in the world.
Scrabulous did NOT do a good PR job for them. They built a crappy rip off that did more to injure the official brand assets than help them. The interface was bad. The layout was awful. There were decidely inapprioriate ads placed alongside the game that upset core family users. Cheating was too easy - they included a word list in the default game and told you when you were playing an illegal word.
The brand became tainted for people who don’t know the difference between the games. Hasbro actually showed great restraint by not shutting down Scrabulous in the interim, in effect acknowledging their inability to get up to speed on Facebook quickly.
Sure the purists hate on Scrabulous, but I see it as a different game entirely. Things like getting to spend so much time between plays to consider options, looking up words, and having access to a list of 2-letter words are the rules of Scrabulous, not Scrabble. For better or worse its been morphed into an quite different animal. Extends the class Scrabble if you will.
Now, if EA incorporates some of these ‘innovations’ then who is pulling from whom here?
One other thing. There is always: http://www.scrabulous.com/
Wonder why Hasbro is not going after that, too. I suppose they probably will. Erick, do you know?
sarah: You don’t know what you’re talking about. As Marcus said, stop complaining that Scrabulous isn’t Scrabble. Of course it’s not Scrabble, it’s Scrabulous! It’s like complaining that oranges suck because they aren’t apples. If you want an apple, eat an apple and keep quiet.
Scrabulous has the features that its users want. The developers are very responsive to feature requests and reply back personally to user comments.
From what I’ve heard, there are a lot of Scrabble boxes gathering dust in closets. People won’t go back to Scrabble because Scrabulous is a better game. Scrabble needs a rule update to survive.
@44
From what you’ve heard?
And anyone else can say they have heard otherwise. Posting unsubstantiated, baseless claims really doesn’t do much for your argument.
Perhaps they should enter a co-licensing deal with scrabulous, Ea, and Real networks instead
Offer the changes that scrabul made as a Non infridgement as an extra mode
and add real arcade ads along with ads for ea games
Everyone wins
Scrabul still gets payed albeit they would have to pay royalty charges but in return they would get payment for developing the game
Ea would get payment from the licensing deal plus some free adspace
Real would get the same as EA
Hasbro would get royalties and not have to loose people
A little too late. They should have jumped on it at the beginning…
http://tinyurl.com/6ezwee
@10, Christopher Herot.
They cannot “copyright” a game, but they can “patent” a game or idea. And Hasbro had paid for patent.
@45 Yes, from what I’ve heard. You totally missed that the statement was slightly tongue in cheek.
The fact is that there is one Scrabble box in every 3 American homes. Judging from the people I’ve asked about how often they play the Scrabble board game, there are a lot of boxes gathering dust. Players of online games expect a different experience from a box so it makes sense to change the rules to accept and take advantage of the changing realities of society and technology.
I can’t believe its taken them this long to make it though. The owners and developers of the brand should’ve realised years ago that this was where everything was heading. Whatever happens now is their own fault for sleeping on the job and only catching up to the modern world
now.