Zynga launching Words With Friends on Facebook

By Mike Flacy August 1, 2011

Words-With-Friends — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Makers of the extremely popular FarmVille, Zynga is bringing the mobile gaming hit Word With Friends to audiences on the Web. Extremely similar to Hasbro’s Scrabble, Words With Friends is a relaxed version of the word game with built-in chat functions similar to the recently launched Hanging With Friends. The mobile version of the game allows players to sync Facebook accounts to the in-game friend list and players can challenge people on the list to play a quick match. The Web version of Words With Friends allows for cross-platform play as well as trading comments about the game on the Facebook wall.

Players also have the ability to send notifications to other players when waiting on a player to take a turn in the game. Players can be involved in up to 20 games at a time simultaneously as most matches typically take ten to fourteen days to complete. While Words With Friends hasn’t launched on the PC platform yet, it’s rumored to roll out within the next two weeks. It’s also likely that another update to the mobile software of the game will roll out to allows for Facebook notifications. Anyone interested in the game can “Like” the official Words With Friends Facebook page to receive a notification of launch.

It’s possible Zynga will come under the same scrutiny as another company that built and launched Scrabulous on Facebook on 2006. Before FarmVille was launched, Scrabulous was often referred to as the most popular game on Facebook with over 500,000 active players each day. During the height of its popularity on Facebook, the game was generating $25,000 a month in advertising revenue. The popularity caught the attention of Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble. After a lawsuit in 2008, Scrabulous was forced to shut down. The owners of the application and website relaunched under the name Lexulous, but didn’t regain the massively popularity of Scrabulous.

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