The greatest word game of all time, reimagined is now better than ever.
It’s been three months since the worldwide launch of Scrabble® GO, and we wanted to celebrate this milestone by reflecting on the incredible debut of the game and our vision for the future.
Every day, we see connections being made in Scrabble® GO -- whether it’s a dad and daughter staying in touch from afar, neighbors challenging each other to a friendly match, or new friends being brought together from across the globe. To know we’ve created a mobile game that touches millions of peoples’ lives daily gives us even more of a rush than when we play a 7-letter bingo (or bonus, if you’re in the UK). Yes, please forgive our cheesy SCRABBLE® analogy.
As with any new game experience, but especially one with such an iconic and beloved brand like SCRABBLE®, we knew we’d learn a lot from our global community of players -- from casual enthusiasts to fierce competitors, to SCRABBLE® purists and every word game fan in between.
We spent three years developing and rigorously testing Scrabble® GO before the worldwide launch to ensure we created a game that we could be enormously proud of. It was worth it. Launching as the most-downloaded mobile word game of all time, Scrabble® GO has 2.5 million people from all over the world playing every day, for more than 100 minutes each day. We are thrilled by the outpouring of great feedback we’ve received from players coming from all corners of the globe, sharing their own unique connection to SCRABBLE®.
In addition to the positive feedback, we also expected active discussions on how to improve the experience to strike the right balance between a more traditional approach and a new spin on the classic brand, along with new feature ideas, user experience shortcuts and more. We’ve been listening to any and all feedback and are excited by the game’s continued evolution. We love this active dialogue to make Scrabble® GO the best it can be.
Our most recent updates to the game include making it easier to find and invite friends in game, adding the official North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA) Word List as a playable dictionary, and changes to the home lobby. To appeal to the more traditional SCRABBLE® player, we also recently began testing the ability to select an updated game setting: “Scrabble Classic.” “Scrabble Classic” puts Scrabble® GO’s classic mode gameplay option as the focus of a simplified home lobby, without additional game modes and features. This does not replace the fresh take on SCRABBLE® that Scrabble® GO offers, it is simply another way for players to choose the experience they want -- the foundation of every Scopely game: a directed-by-consumer experience.
While we are thrilled to have created a game that millions of people enjoy every day, this is just the beginning. At Scopely, we want to make games that players love and will return to for years to come. One of our core tenets is ‘iterate to success’ as we believe there is no finish line to our game experiences or straight line to success. We are constantly aiming to raise the bar and continually listening and incorporating community feedback to deliver the best games possible.
For many of our games, we have active Players Councils who provide regular feedback -- for Scrabble® GO this includes long-time fans of traditional SCRABBLE®, fans of previous SCRABBLE® mobile and online experiences, and SCRABBLE® superfans and champions. Ultimately our mission is to deliver experiences that appeal to all types of players and are an important part of people’s lives. To keep Scrabble® GO dynamic and exciting for players, we’re already hard at work on future updates that will include more commonly requested and/or Player Council-advised features, like the ability to select the difficulty of the computer you play against in our single-player mode and new settings that offer even greater control over your Scrabble® GO experience.
Scrabble® GO is an experience that people of all backgrounds, skill levels, and familiarity with word games can enjoy with friends, family, and one another. We look forward to bringing even more players into the SCRABBLE® community, introducing them to the many ways to experience the greatest word game of all time.
There are even more exciting and important updates on the way, so please continue sharing your thoughts and experiences with us and stay connected with the community on Facebook!
Thanks for playing,
Victor Diaz-Roig, SVP and Studio GM, and the entire Scrabble® GO team