Hasbro Finally Drops Scrabulous Suit
Hasbro Finally Drops Scrabulous Suit


				


				


				from the how'd-that-work-out? dept
				


				It’s difficult to see how Hasbro could have handled the Scrabulous situation any worse.  Scrabulous, of course, was a Scrabble-like game made for Facebook, which quickly became one of the most popular apps on that social networking site.  Hasbro, which owns the rights to Scrabble in the US, didn’t have its own version, and rather than recognize an opportunity, it chose to shoot itself in the foot, suing the brothers who created it.  The Scrabulous guys eventually came back with a slightly modified game, which became quite popular as well, while many angry Facebook fans organized boycotts of Hasbro products.  Prior to that, of course, the attention brought about by Scrabulous had resulted in a renaissance for the game, leading many people to go out and buy physical Scrabble sets.  Yes, Hasbro took a situation that was driving more sales of the board game, and turned it into one where thousands of people were boycotting its products.
Either way, it appears that Hasbro has now dropped the lawsuit over Scrabulous, saying that the changes made to the game makes the lawsuit no longer necessary.  Still, it seems like Hasbro played this game backwards.  Back when Scrabulous was popular, almost everyone I knew on Facebook had a few games going — but since Hasbro got involved, it seems people have moved on.  So, even if Hasbro “won” the legal victory, they pretty much killed their real opportunity to capitalize on renewed interest in the board game.  The company says that the new versions put together by the Agarwalla brothers “provides people in the U.S. and Canada with a choice of different games.”  Sure, it does, but wouldn’t Hasbro have been better off by capitalizing on the fact that all of their interests were aligned initially — rather than competing — and Scrabulous was driving more sales?

				


	Filed Under: business issues, legal issues, scrabulous, wordscraper
	

	Companies: hasbro


			