“After building a dominating audience base of hundreds of thousands of Facebook users, Scrabulous has finally breathed its last breath.”
San Francisco — Facebookers hoping to get in on to word-wise game of Scrabulous on Tuesday were left disappointed as the developers of a knock-off of the game Scrabble discontinued its service for US and Canadian users in the face of a lawsuit by game maker Hasbro Inc.
“Acting upon the call of game owner Hasbro, Facebook has discontinued the Scrabble-like game Scrabulous on its U.S. and Canadian Web sites.”
Rather than finding a link to Scrabulous, an online version of the classic board game created by two brothers Rajat and Jayant Argarwalla in India, for play on the Facebook social networking platform, players found the following message:
“Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here.”
The game closely looked like the board game Scrabble, and when Hasbro and EA came out with an authorized version for Facebook — sued Scrabulous’ developers — the game’s doom was all but sealed.
Hasbro Inc. the makers of Scrabble, that owns the North American rights to the word game, last week sued the Calcutta-based founders of Scrabulous, claiming they are infringing its copyright and trademark.
Separately, Hasbro asked Facebook to block the program, following the launch of its own official version of Scrabble, something the site resisted despite risks of losing immunity protection from copyright lawsuits.
“Hasbro has informed Facebook of a copyright violation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act last week.”
In a statement, creators Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla said they agreed to block Scrabulous in the United States and Canada in deference to Facebook’s concerns, while continuing to pursue their legal defense.
“This is a regrettable event and not something that we are very pleased about, especially as Mattel has been pursuing the matter in Indian courts for the past few months,” Scrabulous co-creator Rajat Agarwalla, said in a statement.
“We sincerely hope to bring our fans brighter news in the days to come.”
“Responding to a legal request from Hasbro, the copyright and trademark holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, the developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice,” Facebook spokesperson Stephanie Pettinati, said in a statement.
Ever since Facebook allowed outside developers to write Web applications that Facebook members can plug into their personal profile pages, Scrabulous has become one of the most popular programs, despite efforts by Scrabble’s owners to end it.
Scrabulous, since its launch a year ago, has become a phenomenon, impeding productivity in offices and schools around the globe. The game has become one of Facebook’s dozen most actively used programs, attracting 500,000 daily players. It pits online opponents who compete to come up with clever words using the most exotic letters to score points.
Earlier this month, video game maker Electronic Arts Inc. under a licensing collaboration with Hasbro released an official version for American and Canadian Facebook users. But the certified Scrabble has been attracting only 15,000 daily players, compared with some half-million for Scrabulous. That Authorized Version is in fact still in a “beta” test mode and encountered technical snag Tuesday.
After releasing the official version, Hasbro filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Southern District of New York, names the creators of the game, brothers Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, and RJ Softwares, as defendants.
Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, while rival Mattel Inc. owns the rights to the popular board game in the rest of the world. Mattel filed a suit against Scrabulous several months ago and is awaiting a decision on its complaint by an Indian court.
“Hasbro has an obligation to act fittingly against infringement of our intellectual properties,” said Barry Nagler, Hasbro’s general counsel. “We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand.”
Fans have mounted a vigorous defense campaign since the joint owners of Scrabble, Mattel and Hasbro announced their intention to sue the Facebook developers back in January.
In a statement, Facebook said that “games are an important part of the social experience on Facebook” and they hope that the dispute will not discourage other developers from testing new ideas.
“We are disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute,” it said. “Nevertheless, we have forwarded their concerns to Scrabulous and requested their appropriate response.”
The brouhaha over Scrabble and Scrabulous underscores the need for social game developers to create unique games, said Shervin Pishevar, CEO of the Social Gaming Network (SGN).
“We encourage developers to create original IP using creative and original ideas, and in the case of existing games, trying to do them in a sanctioned way. That will help build a sustainable, scalable ecosystem for games so players can enjoy them without the risk of having them be suddenly shut down as Scrabulous was,” he explained.
SGN urges developers to come up not only with unique games, but also original content in terms of game art and other aspects, Pishevar said.
Laura Chefer, an Atlanta Facebook user who logs on about 20 times a day to check on Scrabulous, said she had no sympathy for Hasbro despite its rights to the game.
“I was definitely shocked and annoyed,” she said. “These two guys went to all the trouble to make this interface, and now the big company is suing them, and we’re no longer able to play.”
However, there is still good news for the dedicated fans that the game continues to work at the developers’ Web site, Scrabulous.com, but users must sign up and start games afresh.
In its statement, Facebook inspired users to consider trying a new game developed by the Agarwalla brothers called “Wordscraper” that bears clear similarities to the Scrabulous game but had counted only a few dozen users before Tuesday.
The new game pits two players who each have seven tiles but allows them to create their own boards and assign their own point systems to different letters. “Don’t follow rules, make them!” an introduction to the new game advises players.