The people behind Wirdle, a dialect version of the popular Wordle game say they have had to take it down after a copyright claim by the New York Times.
World was created by Welsh software engineer, Josh Wardle as a “simple online game” in 2021. Four months – and millions of players later – it was acquired by the New York Times for a seven figure sum.
Rather than focusing on English, Wirdle uses minority languages, including Scottish Gaelic and Hawaiian. Set up by Shetland dialect group, I Hear Dee, 2 years ago, it has more than 20k users.
“We regret to have to discontinue Wirdle due to a claim by The New York Times that the various minority language versions of Wordle around the world are an infringement on their copyright, even though our Wirdle does not use the same code as the original English language Wordle,” said I Hear Dee.
“We fail to see how free and non-profit Wordle versions in other languages than English, especially minoritised and endangered ones, can infringe on the English language game now owned by the New York Times, but we do not have the means to challenge them. We apologise for this, but it is beyond our control.”
The New York Times said that it was protecting the IP in Wordle and that the developer had been given the opportunity to change the code.
The publisher added that they had “no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times’ Wordle trademarks or copyrighted gameplay.”
