In a perfect world, Scrabulous would still be in a good chunk of the world’s Facebook profiles - but nope. Not this world. Not after Hasbro and Mattel decided to start dropping hammers and threaten Facebook with all sorts of litigation. Scrabulous had made Scrabble cool again, and now it’s gone. It’s really a tragic tale of hyper-sensitivity, poor marketing, gutlessness, and the end of one of the most fun applications available on Facebook. Here’s how it all went down:

Scrabulous first hit the interwebz back in 2005. Did you know that? Me, neither. I had to use wikipedia to find that out. What I do know is that a version of Scrabulous was ported over to Facebook as an application earlier in 2007. At a time when we were getting hit with so many SPAM apps on Facebook, and the site was quickly losing its easy usability, Scrabulous came along and was one of the few apps that saved Facebook from itself (or at least slowed the process). Over 800,000 people had added Scrabulous to their Facebook page. That was great for Scrabulous, great for users of Facebook, great for Facebook, but apparently not so great for Hasbro and Mattel. You see, Hasbro holds the rights to Scrabble (you know, the game you haven’t sat down to play in ages) in the US and Canada. Mattel, on the other hand, owns the rights to Scrabble everywhere else in this world.

Hasbro was the first to act. After supposedly not being able to buy Scrabulous out, Hasbro went on the attack. But oh, wait! Scrabulous is registered with the copyright office! Bummer for you, Hasbro! End of story, right? Nope. What did Hasbro do? They went after Facebook. Now, to Facebook’s credit, they fought on Scrabulous’ side for a long time until just about a month ago and then gave in. Scrabulous is no more on Facebook in the United States and Canada. I read just yesterday that once Mattel saw the Hasbro victory they smelled blood and have now got Scrabulous pulled off Facebook over the rest of the world. There’s plenty more details on all of this, of the which you can read about here and here.

Let me share with you why this has my blood boiling. Hasbro and Mattel apparently don’t know good marketing when they see it. Scrabulous had done the impossible - made Scrabble fun again to a generation that otherwise wouldn’t have touched it with a ten foot pole. People who wouldn’t be caught dead sitting at a table playing Scrabble were suddenly carrying on as much as a dozen simultaneous games over their friends’ profiles. I’ve searched everywhere for a recent sales report for the real-life Scrabble game. I can’t find it anywhere, and that only makes me suspicious. I know people personally who’ve started playing Scrabble with friends in person after playing Scrabulous with them online. I even played my first game of real Scrabble since I was a kid a few months ago. It doesn’t take a biochemist to figure out that Scrabulous had to have helped Scrabble sales.

Spike Jones over at Brains on Fire had a great blog post a little while back on this very subject. Companies are getting a little hyper-sensitive about their brands/products. If they would just sit back and shut up and see what users could do for them, they’d be surprised by the free marketing.

But it wasn’t good enough in the case of Scrabulous. It is gone. In its place, Hasbro has released its own Facebook app, Scrabble on Facebook. Awww . . . what a cute name! Entirely uninspiring . . . but you go, Hasbro! Last I checked, the “official” Scrabble app on Facebook has less than half the followers Scrabulous had and is enjoying a 1.2-out-of-5 star user rating. Of course, that’s better than Mattel, who’s released their version of Scrabble Worldwide and is getting trashed even harder internationally. There are more people in Facebook groups crying out to save Scrabulous and tear down the “official” Scrabble games than there are people playing Scrabble on Facebook now. So the bottom line: in an attempt to greedily capitalize on revised interest in the Scrabble gametype, Hasbro and Mattel have subsequently alienated a would-be dedicated fanbase. Good job, guys.

I want this to end on a high note, though - so here it is: Scrabulous fights on. You can still play on their web site, which is great. Furthermore, they’ve created a new app for Facebook: Wordscraper. Please, by all means, join in the fun with that! I’m sure this is a lesson learned by Hasbro and Mattel. I wouldn’t be surprised if some pink slips go out in the near future because of this move. But may it be a lesson learned for all of us: People want power. Give them a good product, and then give them power . . . and watch your company soar.

Thanks so much to all the sources on Wikipedia for help in “factating” my crazy rant. Most especially: The New York Times, BBC News, and PC Magazine.