Scrabble Wars

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Them's Fightin' Words: The Battle over Scrabble
Hasbro finally spells out plans for online versions of popular word game.


Play Scrabble free on Yahoo! Games
It's been around for over 60 years, can be found in 121 countries and has been translated into 29 different languages.

But until this week, you couldn't play the official game of Scrabble online.

You could however, play dozens of copycats. The foremost of these, a popular Facebook application called Scrabulous, became such a breakout hit that it incited the ire of Scrabble rights-owner Hasbro, who promptly took the game's developers to court for copyright infringement.

With the case caught in lawyer limbo, Hasbro has apparently decided to take matters into its own hands. In a joint effort between the board game giant and monolithic video game publisher EA, two versions of the popular game are rolling to the web in July: one currently up on EA's Pogo.com casual game site, and another due out later this month on -- what else -- Facebook.

The move is enjoying the endorsement of the rabid Scrabble community, including John D. Williams Jr., Executive Director of the National Scrabble Association.

"After playing with EA's social networking and Pogo versions of SCRABBLE, I have no doubt that SCRABBLE players in the US and Canada will absolutely love the gameplay and overall experience," he said in a press statement. " "We have seen the SCRABBLE brand grow in popularity in so many different ways, including this year's School SCRABBLE Championship and the current interest in SCRABBLE for social networking. I am particularly pleased that the Pogo and Facebook EA SCRABBLE games offer such simple and clean interfaces that allow players to jump right in and start playing."

Williams' stance echoes the thoughts of thousands of devoted Scrabble players who have patiently waited for Hasbro to bring the game into the 21st century with an online, digital version. Until now, players have only been able to play computer versions of the game against A.I. opponents. The ability to match up against human players without leaving the house is, to many, a big deal.



Scrabulous users, however, aren't pleased with the thought of Hasbro shutting down their beloved mimic -- and that's not a group Hasbro necessarily wants to tick off. With well over 500,000 daily users, Scrabulous is the biggest gaming app on Facebook, and with a significant portion voicing their distaste through various 'Save Scrabulous' groups, could pose a legitimate threat to Hasbro's plans.

Hasbro has patently refused to comment on the matter, but releasing the official game on Facebook brings up another quandary. Toymaker Mattel, who owns the Scrabble copyright outside of North America, released Scrabble by Mattel for the social networking site back in March of 2008. Hasbro, however, owns the copyright in North America, rendering the Mattel game unplayable by Facebook users living in the U.S. and Canada. Likewise, the new Hasbro Scrabble game will only be accessible to North American users.

While the region-locking issue will certainly confuse Facebook users, the Pogo.com side of things is tailor-made for hardcore Scrabble fans, featuring customizable difficulty settings, rated games and even a room dedicated to NSA tournament members.  <:>