Scrabblegate- Hasbro’s Missed Facebook Opportunty

Chris — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:20:32 +0000

Brothers Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla are Scrabble fanatics. After the site on which they were playing a Scrabble knock off, Quadplex started charging users to play, they decided to create their own version. In June 2007 they took their online version to Facebook and since then, more than 2.3 million users have enjoyed Scrabulous online.

Two weeks ago, Scrabble owner Hasbro sent a take down notice to Facebook.

Why shut Scrabulous down when there are so many other online clones out there? Hasbro probably has a case with respect to name confusion. But I think the real missed opportunity for Hasbro here was in not embracing this huge, connected, engaged (and vocal) community who loves their game.

Why not hire the the Aharwalla’s as game developers, re-brand Scrabulous as Scrabble and reap the rewards? If 2 Scrabble fans can cultivate a community base of 2.3 million voracious players, imagine what might be possible if a company like Hasbro threw their weight behind it?

Perhaps Hasbro has sold the electronic or online rights to the game to a 3rd party and now must defend that Agreement. If so, fair enough and then this becomes a missed opportunity of another sort.

Facebook users obviously love games – they are some of the most installed and most active Facebook applications available. For a company like Hasbro, this could just be the tip of the iceberg. Imagine Battleship, Monopoly, Axis and Allies, or any number games from Hasbro’s huge portfolio as Facebook applications.

What do you think? Clear case of copyright infringement, or missed opportunity to engage fans in the social media era?

(Hat tip to Josh Quittner)

Chris Webb's Publishing Blog » scrabulous

Scrabblegate- Hasbro’s Missed Facebook Opportunty