Millions of Facebook loyalists were heartbroken when their favourite online word game Scrabuolus was taken off the social networking site following copyright infringement lawsuits against the founders of the online game -- brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla -- and their company RJ Softwares in July 2008.
The Scrabulous web site was shut down in September. Users attempting to access it were advised: 'The site is taking a coffee break. Sorry for the inconvenience.'
Hasbro and Mattel, the world’s largest toy companies, had introduced Facebook versions of Scrabble to compete with Scrabulous in 2008, but neither company had succeeded denting into Scrabulous’ popularity.
After a legal tussle running into months, Hasbro --which owns the copyright for Scrabble -- withdrew its lawsuit against RJ Softwares in December, much to the relief of Scrabulous fans.
The court allowed Scrabulous to continue after some alteration.
As if in the form of a New Year gift, the game reappeared on Facebook, soon after the lawsuit was withdrawn, under a new name: Lexulous.
Also, unfinished games and points were retained painting a smile on each Scrabuolus loyalists' face.
On September 27, www.lexulous.com was launched with access to the old database of scrabulous.com users. It has a live version and practice mode, and an option to play by email.
RJ Softwares, which develops high quality interactive online games, was founded in 2000 by commerce students Rajat and Jayant of St Xavier's College, Kolkata.
Their company too is headquartered in Kolkata.
In an interview with Assistant Managing Editor Indrani Roy Mitra, Lexulous's creator Jayant Agarwalla spoke about his company, inception of Scrabulous, the Hasbro lawsuit, the online gaming industry and more. Read on. . .
Image: Rajat (left) and Jayant Agarwalla. | Photograph, courtesy: Jayant Agarwalla
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