EA Takes Over Scrabble App, Wipes Player Histories and Switches Dictionary

New submitter DeathToBill writes "EA is in the midst of another user backlash, the BBC reports. After EA took over operation of the online Scrabble brand, it introduced a 'new and improved' version. Improvements include requiring manual refreshes to see other players' turns, irretrievably wiping players' game history and a switch to the Collins dictionary (rather than the traditional Chambers edition) that has proved deeply unpopular with Scrabble fanatics. "EA was unavailable for comment.""

Re:Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.

[Intropy]

You can't copyright a set of rules. You can patent them. You can copyright the specific wording explaining the rules that Scrabble uses. You can trademark the name Scrabble, and the appearance of Scrabble would be trade dress. The patent on Scrabble expired a long time ago. Anyone is free to make a Scrabble clone as long as it doesn't look so similar to the original that people would think it is authorized by the company that owns the original.

well, there is always

[houbou]

Wordsmith.. My personal favorite anyways.

Re:How is this newsworthy?

[Jeremy Erwin]

From 2003 [absp.org.uk]

STATEMENT FROM PHILIP NELKON (MATTEL) AS ISSUED IN DECEMBER SCRABBLE CLUB NEWS

After a great deal of heart-searching, Mattel have decided to end their 20-year relationship with Chambers. The decision was not taken lightly and we all have the utmost respect for the continual development of OSW that Chambers have masterminded over the years.

Our new partner is Harper Collins, publishers of the number one selling dictionary in the UK - Collins English Dictionary.

Sounds like old news-- though my ipad's scrabble app did update its dictionary options fairly recently. Since I'm a novice and have not yet memorized the dictionary,, I took little notice of the change.