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Home | | Casual Games
Players Passionate About Scrabulous
 Scrabulous is an online version of the popular board game Scrabble. In Scrabulous players generally play with a ten minute time clock that ticks down while they are playing. There are also even shorter games with a quick five minute clock. Players can ask for more time in any game. Scrabulous automatically verifies words so their is no squabbling about whether or not a word is legitimate. The game keeps a player's stats including how many games they have won and lost and what their rating is. The popular viral game has 700,000 daily players and nearly three million registered users according to the New York Times.
Fans of the game are obsessive. They play against friends, co-workers, family members and strangers, and many have several games going at once.
Everyone seems to love the online game — everyone, that is, except the companies that own the rights to Scrabble: Hasbro, which sells it in North America, and Mattel, which markets it everywhere else.
In January, they denounced Scrabulous as piracy and threatened legal action against its creators, two brothers in Calcutta named Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla who run a software development company. Both Hasbro and Mattel said they were hoping for a solution that would not force them to shut down the game.
Scrabulous received a boost when a Facebook application was created for the game. The Times article says some eager players play multiple games at a time. The two brothers who created the game are making advertising revenues frm the game. Since it is based on the Scrabble board game it will be interesting to see what happens between the Agarwalla brothers and Hasbro and Mattel. Hopefully, they will come up with a smart solution that allows this amazingly popular game to continue.
Posted on March 5, 2008
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EA Announces First Hasbro Titles in Development
 EA Casual Entertainment has announced its initial slate of Hasbro games in development on a variety of game consoles. The first Nintendo Wii and DS titles that will be available this fall are Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf N-Strike both in production at EA's Salt Lake Studio. EA also is developing new Monopoly and Scrabble titles for multiple platforms, as well as other titles that will be announced later this year. Pictured on the right are screenshots from EA's mobile Yahtzee game.
Mobile gamers can already play Scrabble (in North America) and Yahtzee Deluxe on their phones. Starting this spring, EA Mobile will add more classic Hasbro titles. The first games include Monopoly Here & Now, Trivial Pursuit and Risk. EA will also launch Yahtzee Adventures which it calls a re-invention of the classic dice game.
For online web play EA's Pogo.com is developing versions of Monopoly and Yahtzee as multiplayer experiences. Trivial Pursuit will launch on Pogo.com this fall. Additionally, Pogo.com is launching two connected downloadable titles, Operation and Pictureka, which can be played offline or online.
"EA and Hasbro want to give families new ways to enjoy games; we want give them a new way to come together, connect, spend time and have fun around the TV or online," said Chip Lange, Vice President and General Manager of EA's Hasbro Studio. "Bringing the spirit of these games to life as video games has allowed us to create really unique and creative experiences for families and friends of all ages to enjoy together at home or online."
Posted on February 15, 2008
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Facebook Told to Take Down Scrabulous
The BBC reports that Mattel and Hasbro have asked Facebook to remove a third party application called Scrabulous. Scrabulous allows Facebook users to interact using a Scrabble type of online game. The BBC says over 500,000 Facebook users were using it daily.
Scrabulous is currently one of Facebook's ten most popular applications - little programs that Facebook members can add to the profiles they maintain on the site.
The request to remove the add-on came from both Hasbro and Mattel because ownership of the Scrabble trademark is split between the two. Hasbro owns rights to the game in the US and Canada while Mattel has rights everywhere else in the world.
Facebook told the PA newswire that it had no comment to make at this stage.
The Scrabulous add-on was not created by Facebook but was built for the site by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla - software developers based in Calcutta.
Casual games are a huge market and Facebook applications are just one arena where they are played. There are likely numerous Scrabble clones found online but usage of the Facebook application called Scrabulous was large enough to get the attention of the trademark holders Hasbro and Mattel.
Posted on January 18, 2008
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Bob Ross: The Video Game
 Happy little trees will soon be available to Nintendo gamers. A note on the Bob Ross website (thx Sploid) says Bob Ross, Inc. has cut deal with AGFRAG Entertainment to develop a video game.
The Bob Ross game will utilize the unique inputs that the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Revolution have that can truly immerse the players while they learn to paint like Bob Ross and can play the addictive and fun games that we have planned for the title. I believe that Bob Ross Inc's and AGFRAG Entertainment Group's similar beliefs in independence, creativity, and teaching others will benefit how the game is developed and how the players of all ages will be able to enjoy this game.
I want the community to share with us their favorite Bob Ross shows, painting techniques, and what they’d like to see in the NDS and Revolution games. We want to keep the brush going."
The Joy of Painting is seen on nearly 300 public television stations throughout the United States, and is broadcast in Japan, Mexico, The Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Costa Rica, Canada, Colombia, Iran, Greece and others.
Bob Ross was best known for the Joy of Painting series which taught viewers how to paint scenic landscapes. Bob Ross passed away in July, 1995. If you want to keep up with the latest development on the Bob Ross game there's a Bob Ross Video Game Group on Yahoo that you can join.
Posted on April 5, 2006
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TBS to Launch Games-on-demand Service
TBS, Inc. has announced plans for Gametap, a broadband entertainment network that will offer games-on-demand. GameTap will launch this fall with 300 games. They have already licensed over 1,000 games from 17 different publishers. Games will include classic arcade, consule and pc games. Here is an explanation of the service from the press release:
GameTap provides subscribers an "all-you-can-play" gaming service accessible from up to two household computers. To access GameTap, players securely download and install Turner-developed client software from www.gametap.com that acts as a gateway to the GameTap library. Because games reside securely on the PC, not across a network, they act just as if they were still on the console or at the arcade. Fast response times, 3D effects, colors, and characters are all present and accounted for. GameTap supports navigation and game play using both keyboard and mouse, as well as most USB peripherals.
Posted on April 28, 2005
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A Boom for Casual Games
An article on the BBC reports that casual computer games like card games, puzzles, bridges, tetris and other easy-to-play games could be big in 2005. A rise in the number of people using mobile devices and instant messaging software is expected to increase time spent playing casual games.
Posted on January 6, 2005
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