CNN Exclusive: Wordle will be turned into a board game in the United States

Hasbro partnered with The New York Times, owner of the popular online word puzzle, to create “Wordle: The Party Game”. The new board game “offers classic Wordle gameplay, but now in a whole new way,” the companies said in a press release. The Brazilian versions, Termoo or Letreco, are not expected to be released this way.

Hasbro approached the New York Times to do a version of the game after realizing how popular it became online, according to Hasbro Gaming Senior Vice President and General Manager Adam Biehl.

“What piqued our interest was how much fun people were having posting the results on social media,” Biehl said in an exclusive interview with CNN Business . “That’s when we knew there was something special about it,” she said.

“Wordle: The Party Game” is one of Hasbro’s fastest releases, highlights Biehl, as it took the team less than a year to create it. The new title fits into the company’s pop culture game portfolio, which includes Monopoly editions based on the “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things” series. The company is paying the Times a licensing fee to use Wordle.

Many versions of the game were created by the Hasbro studio before reaching the one being released.

“We start with what we’re trying to achieve,” Biehl said, including being “authentic to the Wordle experience as much as possible, because we want to capture what really got consumers interested in the game.”

In addition, the team aimed to match “the quality the Times is known for,” Biehl said. “It’s been a fun partnership working with them on this.”

Pre-orders in the United States begin this Thursday (14), ahead of the game’s launch on October 1. It will be sold on Hasbro’s website and at Target, Amazon and Walmart stores at an MSRP of $19.99.

how will the game be

“Wordle: The Party Game” retains the game’s trademark, which gives contestants six chances 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 correct place).

In the board game edition, four different versions are available to play: fast, timed, team and classic.

The classic version pits users against each other as they try to guess the letters of the word assigned by the “Wordle Host”. Players take turns in the role of host, and each round ends after six tries – unless the correct word is guessed.

The presenter uses the colored tiles to place over the letters to indicate what is correct. The timed and quick versions limit the amount of time players have to make their guesses.

Perhaps the most significant difference to the online version is the team mode, which will have two people on a single board against another team and guessing the word their opponent has chosen.

“We know people love having a game night and having their friends over. These are social experiences, so it’s a way to share, connect and create memories,” said Biehl.

Scoring is similar to how the online version is, and encourages players to get the word with the fewest guesses. The fewer tries a player needs, the fewer points he will score – and the player with the fewest points at the end of the game wins.

The board game contains dry erase boards and markers as well as protective partitions to prevent cheating 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 hopes it will reach “a slightly older audience,” as do other word games like Scrabble and Boggle.

“We know these games have a slightly older audience, young adults and adults, but we want to make sure there is a path for younger players because we know a lot of families like to connect during matches,” he added.

Wordle’s growth

Josh Wardle, a software engineer who previously worked on Reddit, launched the game online in October 2021, which quickly became a cultural phenomenon. The New York Times bought Wordle for “the low seven figures” in January 2022, adding it to its growing portfolio of online games, which also includes the Crossword, Mini and Spelling Bee.

Turning Wordle into a board game helps the Times keep its “existing audience engaged with the game and also introducing it to all new audiences,” Jonathan Knight, Games chief at the Times, told CNN Business . “We are excited about the collaboration,” she added.

The purchase helped increase the number of digital subscriptions to the newspaper, as it aims to diversify its revenue beyond advertising. Digital product subscriptions increased 26.3% in the first quarter from a year earlier to $226.8 million, covering more than 40% of total sales.

“Wordle brought tens of millions of new users to the Times, many of whom stayed to play other games that drove our best-ever quarter for net subscriber additions to games,” CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said in the earnings release. of May.

She added that the company gained 387,000 “net digital subscribers” in the quarter and now has 9.1 million total subscribers.

Wordle remains free to play, but the Times puts its other games behind a paywall after a limited number of moves. Knight said the company is focused on expanding Wordle’s presence by adding it to the company’s flagship news app and Crossword app.

“We are very pleased with the involvement and continued enthusiasm behind Wordle,” concluded the executive.

Paul R. La Monica of CNN Business contributed to this report