Zynga of late had acquired many companies and one of them was Newtoy, which was acquired in December last year. Newtoy was a mobile game studio and its acquisition gave Zynga command over one of the most popular titles of Texas gaming studio which was Words With Friends. ‘Words The Friends’ is a mobile game which is available for iOS and Android OS. Its a gaming experience which is quite similar to like playing Scrabble. But Zynga has extended the game’s wings and not this game is on Facebook for Facebook users and would compete with the well in demand Scrabble on Facebook.
This game is quite interesting as its similar to Scrabble and on a similar platform is set for users. One player challenges the other to come up with a word which can be done by placing tile letters on a digital game board. This placing of words will give the player score accordingly. Scrabble sounds similar because this game even gives point value to each and every letter. There are even bonus points given to a player at times. The base of the game is to compete and so the player with the highest points, wins the game.
This game is an ideal game for Facebook as Facebook provides a social platform for many multi-player games of which ‘Words The Friends’ is one. This Facebook version however has a few more features wherein one can call out their friends publicly once then have made a score on their wall. There is even an option to activate the notification to their friends, once they are done with their turn. This notifies the other player that its their turn to score a word. Again, one can even send a request to their Facebook friends to start a fresh new game. The game is not restricted by time as one can drag a game to days or even weeks. A player can enter up to 20 games at a given point of time. There is an in-built advantage to mobile users having Android or iOS devices as they can switch over their games between their Facebook account and mobile devices.
Zynga has taken the route from Facebook to mobile phones by giving mobile users the extension of playing FarmVille and CityVille, but its the first time Zynga has opted to go the other way round.
Zynga had this time chosen Scrabble to compete with on Facebook but it seems that Zynga has a habit of competing with the well-settled games. Zynga of late had even launched another game from the Newtoy store which was Hanging With Friends. This game was a competitors for Hangman which is a classic popular game.
But this new game on Facebook from the Zynga warehouse has the potential to make it big as ‘Words The Friends’ is already seen success on mobile platforms. This can be noted on the basis of a report from Inside Mobile Apps which stated that Zynga’s acquisition of ‘Words The Friends’ and Newtoy, has helped Zynga grow in terms of active mobile users on a daily basis on mobile phones. This increase in number took just seven months. But Zynga in a SEC filing recently claimed that the acquisition has indeed doubled the active user list of ‘Words The Friends’ because of the combination of the two companies’ know how and scale which relate to social game mechanics.”