Good and Bad PR

Scrabble’s Worst Competition Is Itself

by Jennifer

Long known as one of the most popular games, Scrabble has a new competitor – itself. Last week, Hasbro and Mattel issued cease-and-desist notices to all of the parties involved with the distributors of Scrabulous, an online version of the game that users can play on Facebook. They contend that the game infringes on their copyrights and trademarks of Scrabble and are urging Scrabulous fans to switch to legal Scrabble sites.

Scrabulous

Scrabulous has a huge following – more than 600,000 Facebook users play the game daily. The games are turn-based, meaning players don’t have to be online at the same time to play, and users can play the game with their friends. The game even has its own Facebook page and, as of Jan. 25, has 12,488 fans.

The actions of Mattel and Hasbro prompted some fans to start a “Save Scrabulous” Group. And, if the reactions of Facebook users’ to other Facebook changes are any indication, it won’t be long before the entire Scrabulous community joins the group.

Angering Fans

I understand the makers of Scrabble want to hold onto the rights of the game, but instead of insisting that the application be removed from Facebook, why don’t they work with it? They could tap into the readily available fan base and send out coupons about Scrabble or messages concerning news about the game. Forcing the removal of the application will only anger thousands of fans and may only encourage them to start their own online versions of the game elsewhere. Social media isn’t going anywhere and fighting it now is going to make marketing Scrabble in the future more difficult.

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