The New York Times newspaper has bought the spelling game Wordle by paying inventor Josh Wardle an undisclosed amount of low seven figures.
You may have heard of Wordle, the spelling game that became a viral internet sensation seemingly overnight.
If you haven’t heard of it until now, that’s okay. You’ll be hearing of it more often from today as the New York Times Company has purchased the game. In a high profile payout, the famed newspaper purchased the game from its Brooklyn-based developer Josh Wardle.
Wardle famously invented the game for his wife, Palak Shah, as she enjoyed doing New York Times crosswords and playing spelling bee. For those who do not know, the game has so far been played by over 2 million users. The player is provided six chances to guess a random five-letter word.
When the player guesses a letter that does not appear in the word, the letter is coloured with grey and appears as a grey box. If the letter in question which the player guesses is in that word but not in the right position as guessed by the player, it is coloured yellow. If the player guesses the correct letter and it is in the right place, it is coloured green.
The purchasing of the fun-filled, addictive game has led to immediate online speculation regarding the game’s future. Netizens are bringing attention to this particular statement by the Times: the game will “initially remain free to new and existing players.”
New York Times further referenced the purchase as a means to improve the company’s
subscription base, suggesting that it will eventually move behind a subscription paywall.
This has brought some disappointment and derision from netizens who are criticising
the general trend of small and widely loved games being free to use, and then getting
put behind a paywall after getting purchased by a bigger corporation. Meanwhile, other users have welcomed this news as another success story of a young inventor making a fortune out of a game he made out of love for his partner.
Wordle can be played for free on this site.
Check out the reactions of Twitter users below:
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