The New York Times has officially acquired the popular daily word game, Wordle, for an undisclosed sum in the low-seven figures.
Wordle is set to join New York Times Games’s portfolio less than six months after its release in October 2021. According to the New York Times, the game gained traction in late 2021/early 2022 with almost 300,000 players and currently has millions of daily players.
“If you’re like me, you probably wake up every morning thinking about Wordle, and savoring those precious moments of discovery, surprise and accomplishment. The game has done what so few games have done: It has captured our collective imagination, and brought us all a little closer together. We could not be more thrilled to become the new home and proud stewards of this magical game, and are honored to help bring Josh Wardle’s cherished creation to more solvers in the months ahead,” Jonathan Knight, general manager for The New York Times Games, said in a statement. “As part of our portfolio of games, Wordle will have an exciting future with the help of a team of talented engineers, designers, editors and more, furthering the user experience.”
Josh Wardle, the software engineer behind the game, added, “If you’ve followed along with the story of Wordle, you’ll know that New York Times Games play a big part in its origins, and so this step feels very natural to me. I’ve long admired The Times’s approach to the quality of their games and the respect with which they treat their players. Their values are aligned with mine on these matters and I’m thrilled that they will be stewards of the game moving forward.”
Wordle gives players six chances to guess the five-letter word that changes everyday. It will still be free to all players and nothing will change in the gameplay.
Elsewhere in gaming, Sony has acquired Halo developers Bungie.
Tagged: business, gaming