The Scrabble Battle Continues

It appears as though Mattel has given up on its battle against the popular Facebook application, Scrabulous. According to a New York Times article yesterday, RealNetworks has launched a branded version of Scrabble on Facebook. The only problem? People in the U.S. can’t use the application since their copyright only exists outside of the States.

Unless RealNetworks is pouring significant resources into this application it will be challenging for them to build a substantial user base. While it appears that the company invested in an initial user acquisition they may not have invested significant enough resources. Currently Scrabulous has over 600,000 active daily users whereas the branded version of Scrabble has less than 2,000 active daily users.

It will be a while before Scrabble has any hopes of catching up. Mattel would have to invest at least $100,000 if they want to attract a large enough user base to become a substantial competitor to Scrabulous. In the meantime, the Scrabble® application will have to attract new users through viral means. It will be interesting to see how this battle plays out.

 



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6 Comments »

  1. Ah! So all those petitions online seem to have helped is it. Good hear that.

    Comment by Premnath Kudva — April 7, 2008 @ 7:47 pm

  2. Ah! So all those petitions online seem to have helped is it. Good hear that.

    Comment by Premnath Kudva — April 7, 2008 @ 11:47 pm

  3. Facebook should take the official Scrabble off. How can they give access to a game where not all of their subscribers are allowed to use it – or are limited to playing with people in certain regions. It goes against the idea of the global reach of Facebook.

    Comment by M Phillips — July 28, 2008 @ 7:02 am

  4. Facebook should take the official Scrabble off. How can they give access to a game where not all of their subscribers are allowed to use it – or are limited to playing with people in certain regions. It goes against the idea of the global reach of Facebook.

    Comment by M Phillips — July 28, 2008 @ 11:02 am

  5. This really stinks. When I try to play Scrabulous, I get a box saying playersin US and Canada cannot have access. BUT when I try to find the "real" Scrabble, it is not available either! HELP us addicts play your game!

    Comment by Tracy Auchtung — July 29, 2008 @ 2:30 pm

  6. This really stinks. When I try to play Scrabulous, I get a box saying playersin US and Canada cannot have access. BUT when I try to find the “real” Scrabble, it is not available either! HELP us addicts play your game!

    Comment by Tracy Auchtung — July 29, 2008 @ 6:30 pm

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