Hasbro, EA team for video game versions of classics

From Friday’s The Oklahoman:

By Matthew Price

Acting Assistant Features Editor

THE NEXT LEVEL

EA and Hasbro have announced a deal to bring some of Hasbro’s best-selling board games to video game consoles, mobile phones and the Internet. What this will mean to a popular game on a social-networking site is yet unclear.

At this week’s Toy Fair in New York, EA unveiled Littlest Pet Shop on the Wii and DS, NERF “N-Strike” and EA Mobile’s Scrabble, Yahtzee Adventures and Monopoly Here & Now.

“Scrabble” and “Yahtzee Deluxe” are already available on mobile phones; EA Mobile will expand in 2008 to also include “Monopoly Here & Now,” “Trivial Pursuit,” “RISK” and “Yahtzee Adventures.”

Pogo.com will provide online play for Monopoly and Yahtzee, with Trivial Pursuit to come in the fall.

“EA and Hasbro want to give families new ways to enjoy games; we want give them a new way to come together, connect, spend time and have fun around the TV or online,” said Chip Lange, Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Hasbro Studio, in a news release.

What will Hasbro’s plans mean to the popular “Scrabulous” game, played by more than half a million people daily on the social networking site Facebook.com?