Hasbro has partnered with the New York Times, owner of the popular online word puzzle, to create “Wordle: The Party Game.” The new board game “offers a classic Wordle game, but now in a whole new way,” the companies said in a press release. (Iuliana Ionescu, Alamy)
Estimated reading time: 5-6 minutes
ATLANTA – Wordle is jumping from PHONE to FENCE.
Hasbro has partnered with the New York Times, owner of the popular online word puzzle, to create “Wordle: The Party Game.” The new board game “offers a classic Wordle game, but now in a whole new way,” the companies said in a press release.
Hasbro approached the New York Times to make a party game after noticing how popular Wordle had become online, according to Adam Biehl, senior vice president and CEO of Hasbro Gaming.
“What piqued our interest was … the fun that people were having by posting the results on social media,” Biehl said in an exclusive interview with CNN Business. “That’s when we learned there was something special.”
“Wordle: The Party Game” is one of Hasbro’s fastest releases, Biehl said, as the team took less than a year to create. The new title fits into the company’s portfolio of pop culture games, including Monopoly editions based on “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things”. Hasbro is paying the Times a license fee to use Wordle.
Hasbro’s game studio created many versions of the game before landing on the one being released.
“We start with what we’re trying to achieve,” Biehl said, including being “authentic with the Wordle experience as much as possible because we want to capture what made consumers really interested in the game.”
In addition, the team aimed to match “the quality of what the Times is known for,” Biehl said. “It’s been a fun partnership working with them on this.”
Pre-orders begin Thursday before the game launches on October 1st. It will be sold on the Hasbro, Target, Amazon and Walmart websites at a suggested retail price of $ 19.99.
Hasbro approached the New York Times to make a party game after noticing how popular Wordle had become online. (Photo: Hasbro)
How to play
“Wordle: The Party Game” retains the distinctive stamp of the Wordle game, which offers players six opportunities to guess a five-letter word with the help of some color-coded clues (yellow if the letter is correct but in the wrong place and green if the letter is in the right place).
In the board game edition, there are four different versions to play: fast, timed, team and classic.
The classic version pits players against each other as they try to guess the letters of the word assigned by the “Wordle Host”. Players become the host and each round ends after six attempts, unless the correct word is guessed. The host uses the colored tiles to place over the letters to indicate what is correct. Timed and fast versions limit the number of times players have to make their guesses.
Perhaps the most significant difference with online gaming is the team version, which has two people playing on the same board against another team and guessing the word their opponent has chosen.
“We know people love to have a night of games and have their friends to play with. They’re social experiences, so it’s a way to share, connect and create memories,” Biehl said.
The score is similar to how the online version encourages players to understand the word with the least number of riddles. The fewer attempts a player needs, the fewer points he will score, and the player with the fewest points at the end of the game wins.
We know people love to have a night of games and have their friends to play with. They are social experiences, so it’s a way to share, connect and create memories.
– Adam Biehl, Senior Vice President and CEO of Hasbro Gaming
The board game contains dry-erase boards and markers, as well as protective partitions to prevent traps and green and yellow tiles for hints. Also included is an official list of words to use, compiled by the Times.
While it’s a family game, Biehl said Hasbro expects the demographic to “lean toward a slightly larger audience” that reflects its other word games like Scrabble and Boggle. “We know these games are played by a slightly larger audience, young adults and adults, but we want to make sure there’s a way for younger players because we know a lot of families like to connect through games.” , added.
The growth of Wordle
Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer previously on Reddit, launched the game online in October 2021 and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. The New York Times bought Wordle for “seven low figures” in January 2022, joining its growing online gaming portfolio that also includes Crossword, Mini and Spelling Bee.
Transforming Wordle into a board game helps the Times keep its “existing audience committed to Wordle and also introduces Wordle to all new audiences,” Times Games chief Jonathan Knight told CNN Business. “We are delighted with the collaboration.”
The purchase of Wordle helped increase the number of digital subscriptions for the newspaper, as it aims to diversify its revenue beyond advertising. Digital product subscription revenue increased 26.3% in the first quarter from a year ago, to $ 226.8 million, covering more than 40% of total sales.
“Wordle brought in tens of millions of unprecedented new users to the Times, many of whom stayed to play other games that boosted our best quarter for net subscriber additions to the Games,” said CEO Meredith Kopit Levien in the May earnings statement. He added that the company collected 387,000 net digital subscribers during the quarter and now has 9.1 million total subscribers.
Wordle is still free to play, but the Times puts its other games behind a pay wall after a limited amount of free games. Knight said the company is focusing on expanding Wordle’s presence by adding it to the Times ’main news app and the Crossword app.
“We are very pleased with the continued commitment and constant enthusiasm behind Wordle,” Knight said.
Collaborator: Paul R. La Monica
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