Online Scrabble Goes Legit

Online gaming is becoming extremely popular on Facebook. The networking site features a wide variety of applications that allow users to play games like Tetris and even Duck Hunt. Now avid gamers will soon be able to add Scrabble to that list.

There is already an online version of Scrabble on Facebook, but it’s an unauthorized copy that the owners of Scrabble have been trying to shut down. So to help out Scrabble fans across the world, Electronic Arts Inc. has announced they will be releasing an application of the game this month.

EA hopes to outshine Scrabulous, the unauthorized version of the popular board game, but that’s going to be a tough challenge. Facebook users don’t generally test out every single game application on the site. Once they’ve stuck with a certain game they’re unlikely to make a switch, even if it’s to the legal copy. The downside of EA’s version will be that it’s only available to Facebook users located in North America.

But aside from the growing networking site full of hormonal teenagers who like to party, EA hopes to get Scrabble on different websites and platforms. The company recently had the game up on the supported site Pogo.com and is selling versions for iPods and various mobile devices.

Playing Scrabble online is a great way to waste some free time at work or make a class lecture more interesting, but what happened to playing the actual board game? It takes no time to set up and you won’t accidentally punch your keyboard when your opponent gets a triple word score.