New York Times Buys Word Game Wordle

New York Times buys word-guessing game Wordle

“Wordle” has delighted millions of players in just a few months. The “New York Times” now wants to use the online puzzle to push ahead with its conversion to a digital media house.

The New York Times has bought the popular word guessing game Wordle. According to the media group, the developer of the game, engineer Josh Wardle, paid a price in the low seven-figure range. It had attracted several million players within a few weeks.

The game consists of guessing a five-letter word in a maximum of six attempts every day.

If you are a regular Scrabble player, then you won’t have a hard time unscrambling the letters and guessing the word, but if you’re not that 5-letter word might become a bit of a nightmare to figure out.

“Wordle will now play a part in everyday entertainment, giving millions of people around the world another reason to turn to The Times,” the newspaper said. According to The New York Times, the game, which launched in October, only had 90 players by early November. At the beginning of January, it was already more than 300,000 and now millions play it every day. A special appeal is that the players can share their successes online without revealing the solution.

“The game did what few games have done — it captured our collective imagination and brought us all a little closer together,” said Jonathan Knight, executive director of the game’s subsidiary of The New York Times. Game developer Wardle said in turn that the values ​​of the media group matched his. Games from the New York Times also influenced the creation of Wordle, Wardle said. In this respect, the sale feels very natural.

Wardle, a Brit living in New York, had decided not to fund the game through advertising or a subscription. The newspaper informed that the game would continue to be free and that no changes will be made.

For some time now, the New York Times has been changing from a classic publishing house to a media group with games, a recipe platform and an audio platform.