Man, Hasbro is not making any friends these days.
On the heels of the legendary game maker’s lawsuit over net application Scrabulous – which resulted in the wildly popular Scrabble knockoff getting knocked off the Facebook site – Hasbro has now announced a radical revamping of its classic board game, Clue.
In an ill-advised effort to reflect changing times, Hasbro has re-situated the game to “take place at a modern mansion – at a party of the rich and famous,” according to a recent NPR piece. It’s also scrapped Col. Mustard’s military career and made him a retired football player, introduced new rooms, like (egads!) a spa, and dumped the lead pipe for the more family-friendly likes of an axe. Yup … an axe.
No, it makes sense. I mean, really, why give kids a fun, sweetly fuddy-duddy game – one that puts murder at a gentle remove by placing it in another era of scullery maids and secret passageways – when instead you can make a buck by mashing MTV Cribs and torture porn?
Way to be hip to the times, Hasbro.
This article appears in August 8 • 2008.
