End of Scrabulous Finally Near?

Facebook users anticipating a goodbye to the site’s popular unofficial Scrabble game may finally see it happen when an official one comes out later this month. Hasbro and Electronic Arts are preparing the alternative to Scrabulous, which Hasbro says infringes on its copyrights. “We are keeping our legal options open,” a Hasbro rep told TechCrunch regarding its on-again, off-again battle against the hugely popular rogue version.

The new Scrabble game will only be available to players in the US and Canada, while a different official version, from Real Networks, is open to players elsewhere. With Scrabulous still in action, the geographically handicapped Hasbro/Electronic Arts version may get few players: The Real game so far has just 5,643 active daily users to Scrabulous’s 451,107. (More Scrabulous stories.)