Wardle in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in early January said he didn’t intend to monetize the game and didn’t want it to dominate players’ time like other successful games try to. As professional wrestler “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase famously proclaimed, “Everyone has a price.” The Times didn’t disclose the full price it paid for Wordle, but said it was in the low-seven figures. The news outlet said that at the time Wordle moves to The Times, it will be free to play for new and existing players, adding that no changes will be made to its gameplay. It’s unclear how long that will remain the case, but one has to think that eventually, The Times is going to put it behind a paywall to monetize it. The New York Times started running a crossword puzzle in its Sunday edition in 1942. It became a daily feature in 1950 and in 2014, the publication started adding new games to its library including Mini Crossword, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles and Vertex.
