Zynga releases second iPhone social game

Social games firm Zynga has released its second iPhone title, multiplayer word game Scramble Live.

It's a conversion of its existing Facebook game of the same name, which has more than one million monthly active users.

The new version ties into that existing community, allowing iPhone and iPod touch users to play against their Facebook friends.

"Games are more fun when they are played with real friends, which is why we wanted to give iPhone and iPod touch users the opportunity to play a classic word game with people they know,” says Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (pictured).

There are two interesting aspects about Scramble Live from an industry perspective. The first is Zynga's decision to sell the game at a discounted price of $2.99 for its first few days on the App Store, before putting it back up to $4.99.

It's clearly an attempt to spur early sales and get the game straight into the App Store popularity chart, although it's also a reward for early adopters who are more used to buying games and then seeing the price fall.

However, the fact that Zynga is charging at all is also interesting, showing that the company thinks social games don't have to be free on iPhone.

Live Poker, the company's first iPhone game, was free in its basic (but full-featured) version, although people can pay more to get more poker chips every day.

With social gaming on the iPhone in its infancy, it's good to see experimentation going on around pricing in this way.