Scrabulous Scrapped on Facebook

July 29, 2008 — -- Devoted Scrabulous fans were f-u-r-i-o-u-s to find out today that their favorite online game has been scrapped from Facebook.

Fans of the game who tried to log on to the Scrabble copycat this morning on Facebook were greeted with this message: "Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here. "

When users click, they are taken to a note posted by the game's developers, Indian brothers Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla.

"Dear Friend, Please enter your e-mail address below to receive further updates. Your e-mail will remain with us and shall not be disclosed to third parties. Thank you! Rajat & Jayant."

The decision to remove the application came from the developers, not Facebook, the social network told ABCNews.com.

"In response to a legal request from Hasbro, the copyright and trademark holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, the developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice," the company said in an emailed statement.

Outrage on the Facebook group "Save Scrabulous," the largest group of its kind -- more than 45,000 members strong -- was instantaneous. Fans of the game posted messages littered with words such as "madness" and "travesty," as well as several expletives, and encouraged fans to voice their displeasure to Hasbro, either by calling the customer service line -- or the company's CEO.

"I think this is a very dumb decision by Hasbro. For me and a number of our friends, we haven't thought about playing Scrabble for a long time ... I'll say Scrabulous got my interest in Scrabble again," Dominic Hung, a 28-year-old in Vancouver, British Columbia, wrote to ABCNews.com in an e-mail.

Derek Webster, a 35-year-old graphic designer from Toronto and 8-month player of Scrabulous, said he was disappointed that Scrabulous was pulled. According to Webster, the official online version of Scrabble has too many "bells and whistles."