Scrabble Strikes Back

With a click and glide of the mouse, you slide your tiles together on your computer screen. S-C-R-A-B-B-L-E. Scrabble.

Just when the developers and “Save Scrabulous” fans may have thought their worries were over, it’s time to think again. Over the past few months while Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, brothers and creators of the “knock-off” but extremely popular Facebook application, tried to settle their legal battles, there was another agenda. A real Scrabble application, straight from two of the companies who own rights to the game, Mattel and RealNetworks.

Will everyone drop their Scrabulous habits for the new app? Not necessarily, especially if you live in the United States or Canada, where Hasbro owns the Scrabble rights. Read: the real Scrabble application isn’t even an option in the US, where Facebook originated. Talk about a bummer, right?

Scrabulous is still up and running, and so far the program doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Silicon Alley Insider reports that the Scrabulous app has 565,659 active users, while the new Scrabble beta only has 1,779. Don’t worry, you aren’t missing much among the Scrabble bugs and hiccups. And if you’re really counting on it, keep practicing on Scrabulous. Maybe one day Hasbro will pick up the Scrabble app, and by then, the kinks will be smoothed. [Silicon Alley Insider]