Scrabulous
I’ve gone off Facebook in recent months, but one of the things I’ve enjoyed about it is Scrabulous. I really like playing Scrabble, and it’s great to get to play some people online at it - particularly as it’s possible to make a move whenever I want.
It’s now reported that the makers of Scrabble have launched a lawsuit against the Scrabulous game. I’m not going to be burning my Scrabble set or boycotting the company (as some people have said on the Save Scrabulous Facebook group) because they’ve got a point.
But, as the CNet article points out:-
There’s also no direct competitor. Neither Hasbro nor Mattel operates a Web-based, ad-supported version of Scrabble; video game manufacturer Electronic Arts owns the rights to electronic versions of the game, and it currently sells a PC game of Scrabble for about $20. (EA was not available for comment on the Scrabulous issue.) With Scrabulous, all three companies may be sitting on a marketing treasure trove.
A lot of people won’t go out and spend £10 for a copy of Scrabble for their PC. But they might play the odd game online. The Scrabble people are missing out on online advertising but also a way of creating an online Scrabble community and getting more people interested in the game.
And I doubt it’s having any impact on sales of board games. Online doesn’t replace a group of friends.
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It’s an interesting one, isn’t it- I hardly ever play the board game, but I do love Scrabulous and am following this story because without it, Facebook would be a lot less interesting to me.
I don’t see why Scrabulous wouldn’t boost sales of Scrabble boards though, as the two are such different experiences.
Scrabble is my favourite game, yet I never got round to playing it on Facebook. I would have thought it would help promote and generate more sales of the game, not threaten it in any way.