The New York Times has sued an offshoot of its viral web game Wordle. Again. If I had to guess, the word of the day is “petty.”
This time, the [insert-word-here]-le game on the legal chopping block is Worldle, a geography-themed puzzle game designed by Seattle-based developer Kory McDonald. Averaging around 100,000 players a month, Worldle presents you with the outline of a specific country or territory and challenges you to guess which one it is. It’s like a highly condensed version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, but you aren’t looking for a trench-coated spy.
Unfortunately, Worldle is now in the crosshairs of the New York Times, which purchased Wordle from its original developer, Josh Wardle, for an undisclosed seven-figure sum back in 2022. In a legal document obtained by the BBC, The New York Times argues that McDonald is trying to “cause confusion” and take advantage of Wordle’s “enormous goodwill”.
I’ll be the first to admit that Worldle shares more than a few DNA strands with Wordle, but McDonald is far from the first developer to coast off of Wordle’s success. There’s a Wordle clone for mathematicians, music lovers, and Pokemon fans. I’m especially fond of the last one, myself.
This isn’t even the first time the New York Times has sicced the metaphorical hounds on a game inspired by Wordle. The newspaper has proven to be immensely protective of what has become one of its most marketable investments, filing DMCAs against many Wordle-inspired games. If there’s an -le at the end of its title, the game may as well paint a target on itself.
Fortunately for Worldle fans, McDonald told the BBC that he’s not letting his game go down without a fight, telling the interviewer that “worst-case scenario, we’ll change the name, but I think we’ll be okay.”
