First there was Scrabble. Then there was Facebook, the social networking site. Then there was Facebook’s coming out as a “platform” for applications, and then until last week there was Scrabulous– a re-working of the Scrabble board game by two Indian software entrepreneur brothers. Scrabulous became far and away the most popular game on Facebook. Of course, it couldn’t last, since Scrabble’s electronic rights are owned and policed by Electronic Arts, Hasbro, Mattel, and Real Networks.
Hasbro didn’t sue Rajat and Jayant outright until they had an “official” Scrabble offering on Facebook to compete with Scrabulous. Most everyone agrees the official Scrabble game on Facebook isn’t as good as Scrabulous. As a matter of fact, the four rights-holders ponied up $10 million or so to try to buy and rebrand Scrabulous as Scrabble. But the brothers decided to hold out for a better offer.
The brothers weren’t through, though. They unveiled Scrabulous’ successor on Facebook– Wordscraper. It plays a lot like Scrabulous, only with circles instead of squares. Really.