RealNetworks spurns Scrabulous, brings legal Scrabble to Facebook

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Last time we checked, RealNetworks – the body that owns legit Scrabble licenses from Hasbro and Mattel – was negotiating to buy the absurdly popular Scrabulous Facebook minigame. Despite having the potential for offering RealNetworks a serious leg up in the world of social network gaming, it seems the deal fell through (some say the creators, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, wanted a bit too much dosh for it). So RealNetworks has abandoned the idea and launched a whole new version of Scrabble instead…

RealNetworks may buy Scrabulous, legal online Scrabble-esque gameplay for all

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Scrabulous is definitely popular, as a recent Facebook petition testifies, so anything which brings hope to its survival has to be a good thing.

GigaOm speculates that such a deal would be great for RealNetworks, as it could give them a foot in the door of casual gaming on Facebook. Although Facebook users may not really care who saves Scrabulous, so long as they can still play it, they may well win a few fans along the way.