Fabulous Scrabulous, a la Mattel
p2pnet news | Games:- Notice surprises siblings, said the Times of India in January.
And, “Play Scrabulous, the coolest word game with your family and friends, right here at Facebook,” said its inventors, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla on Facebook, p2pnet posted, going on:
“But, Don’t even think about it!, warned joint Scrabble owners Mattel and Hasbro.
Now, however, Think About it, they say, “Having conspicuously failed to have its infamous imitator thrown off of Facebook,” according to PC Pro, which says Mattel is launching its own ‘official’ Scrabble application, in association with RealNetworks.
The creators of the online version of Scrabble, “ran into problems after Scrabble owners Hasbro and Mattel sent in their intellectual property lawyers to crack down on the infringing games,” says AppScout, but:
“Protests from the Scrabulous faithful, however, were so loud that RealNetworks, which owns the electronic rights to Scrabble, pledged to release a non-infringing version.”
It’s available via ‘Scrabble by Mattel,’ but, “reaction has been mixed,” says the story. “A major complaint is the lackluster accompanying dictionary. Plus, the Mattel version is only available outside the U.S.
“Hasbro has the game’s rights in the States, and they have apparently not brokered a deal with Real for a U.S.-based Facebook app.”
Adds PC Pro:
“It’s questionable whether the official game offers enough to tempt Scrabulous players to desert one of Facebook’s most popular applications – especially seeing US players are banned because of the split rights issue.
“But if Mattel’s version fails to dent Scrabulous’s popularity, Facebook may once again be hearing from the company’s lawyers.”
Times of India – Game row: Notice surprises siblings, January 17, 2008
p2pnet – Scrabbling for Scrabulous, January 17, 2008
PC Pro – Does new Facebook Scrabble spell trouble for Scrabulous?, April 8, 2008
AppScout – RealNetworks Pushing Legal Version of Scrabulous, April 7, 2008
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