Scrabulous re-emerges as Wordscraper

Near-identical word game launched within days

31 July 2008 17:29 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Within days of it being pulled from Facebook, Scrabulous has returned - with some notable tweaks and a name change - as Wordscraper.

The "new wordgame" for Facebook, which is said to bear "remarkable resemblances" to Scrabble, is clearly the designers' - Indian brothers Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla - response to Scrabble rights owner Hasbro's lawsuit and takedown notice for the popular Facebook game.

In the new game players lay out words on a Scrabble-like board from a choice of seven letters at a time, and options to adjust the rule defaults mean that users can essentially change the game to the equivalent of Scrabble.

Hasbro has now introduced an officially licensed version of Scrabble to Facebook, that has gained around 80,000 users, so it will be interesting to see how many users Wordscraper gets.