Nerd Rage - Update
With Friends Like These, Who Needs Words?
Friday
October 5th, 2012
Yes, it's true. Mobile gaming giant (and possibly evil company) Zynga has teamed up with Hasbro to release a number of physical board games based on their popular game properties. For most companies this would seem like a natural progression: you spread into board games, cards, toys, backpacks, and all manner of knickknacks to build your franchise. But Zynga doesn't build original franchises. They look for existing, popular games and build a new game that's almost entirely the same but slightly different (just slightly enough that the law will side with them).
This includes 'Words With Friends', a game that is undeniably Scrabble and is now getting a board game produced by the people that also make another game that involves putting a bunch of letter tiles on a grid. What's it called?
Oh, right. Scrabble.
Let that soak in. Hasbro is making games based on mobile apps based on their games. Forget Minecraft Lego, this is a whole new level of brain-hurt.
Of course, when you really get down to it, it makes sense. Or at least business sense. Zynga wants a board game out, so it's going to happen one way or another. Why shouldn't a leading board game manufacturer handle it? Hasbro is now getting a cut of the profits on games that just ape Pictionary and Scrabble. Monopoly has a thousand variants already, so it's not like another iteration of that is going to hurt brand integrity.
All the blame can safely fall on the people who go out and buy a game based on a mobile app based on a game!
