Not only was Scrabulous the favorite way for Facebook employees to whittle away their work hours, but it was a favorite application to some 600,000 daily active users. The game that mimics Hasbro and Mattel's Scrabble game has indeed become too popular for its own good, and the owners of Scrabble have asked Facebook to shut down the game application.
In true Facebook fashion, a group was formed to help save Scrabulous, but to no avail. It looks like Facebook has complied, as the application is no longer active. There's now an error page where the board game application used to be. And while it hasn't been confirmed that Scrabulous is gone forever, this recent development appears to show Facebook's compliance with Hasbro and Mattel.
Cooperation on Facebook's end wouldn't be all that surprising, considering the path that the social network must tread in order to maintain a happy accord with as many third-party businesses as possible, as its open platform and Beacon program are still in the process of their ultimate formation. But like most companies that operate based on the ideas of another era, Hasbro and Mattel have fought for the death of Scrabulous--and they may have won.