RealNetworks is quietly introducing a version of Scrabble on Facebook, despite pledging to save Scrabulous, the wildly popular, unauthorized online version of the board game.
In recent weeks, Gamehouse, a division of RealNetworks, introduced “Scrabble by Mattel” on the social networking site Facebook. The game is technically available only to players outside the United States and Canada, though it relies on users to be honest about their location to make that distinction.
The rights to Scrabble are owned by competing companies, a situation that seems to be hobbling the game’s introduction to Facebook and other social networking sites, and complicating talks with the creators of Scrabulous.
Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, and Mattel in the rest of the world. RealNetworks of Seattle has signed deals with both companies for electronic rights, but Electronic Arts of Redwood City, California, also has a deal with Hasbro.
As of Sunday, the official Scrabble game had attracted fewer than 2,000 daily Facebook users, in contrast to more than 600,000 on Scrabulous.
The popularity of Scrabulous attracted the attention of Hasbro and Mattel earlier this year, and they threatened legal action to shut it down.
The actions of the game companies spurred tens of thousands of Scrabulous players to sign petitions and join online clubs supporting the unauthorized game, and many have pledged to stop buying Mattel and Hasbro products if the companies shut Scrabulous down.
RealNetworks said in early March that it was working with the creators of Scrabulous to save the game. The introduction of a competing game on Facebook seems to indicate an about-face in strategy.
RealNetworks would not make an executive available for an interview for this article, but the public relations manager, Ryan Luckin, said in an e-mail message that the company had been “working with Mattel for a few months now on a…