In January the virally-popular game Wordle was sold to the New York Times for between between $1 million (£758,345) and $5 million. Now the Independent reveals why the game’s creator took that step.
“Because so many people were cloning it and making money from it without his permission.”
Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer who now lives in Brooklyn, New York, said in a talk on Thursday that selling to the Times was “a way to walk away” from the pressure he felt to stop his creation being exploited…. The game’s success inspired numerous smartphone apps that simply copied Mr Wardle’s version while adding ads, in-app-purchases, or subscription fees, many of which were later removed from Apple’s app store.
Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Mr Wardle said: “That isn’t money that I would have made, because I said I don’t want to make money, but something about