The New York Times Games

Last updated

The New York Times Games.svg
Developer(s) The New York Times Company
Publisher(s) The New York Times
Platform(s) Newspaper
Web
iOS
Android
ReleaseAugust 21, 2014
Genre(s) Various
Mode(s) Single-player

The New York Times Games (NYT Games) is a collection of casual print and online games published by The New York Times , an American newspaper. Originated with the crossword in 1942, NYT Games was officially established on August 21, 2014, with the addition of the Mini Crossword. [1] Most puzzles of The New York Times Games are published and refreshed daily, mirroring The Times' daily newspaper cadence.

Contents

The New York Times Games is part of a concerted effort by The New York Times to raise its digital subscription as its print-based sales dwindle. [2] Since its launch, games have become one of the main revenue drivers for The New York Times. [3] [4] As of 2023, The New York Times Games has "over one million" subscribers. [5]

History

1942–2014: The New York Times Crossword

This section is an excerpt from The New York Times Crossword § History.[ edit ]

Although crosswords became popular in the early 1920s, The New York Times (which initially regarded crosswords as frivolous, calling them "a primitive form of mental exercise") did not begin to run a crossword until 1942, in its Sunday edition. [6] [7] The first puzzle ran on Sunday, February 15, 1942, and was published under a pseudonym Farrar occasionally used, Anna Gram. [8]

The motivating impulse for the Times to finally run the puzzle (which took over 20 years even though its publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, was a longtime crossword fan) appears to have been the bombing of Pearl Harbor; in a memo dated December 18, 1941, an editor conceded that the puzzle deserved space in the paper, considering what was happening elsewhere in the world and that readers might need something to occupy themselves during blackouts. [7] The puzzle proved popular, and Sulzberger himself authored a Times puzzle before the year was out. [7]

The New York Times has used video games as part of its journalistic efforts, among the first publications to do so, [9] contributing to an increase in Internet traffic; [10] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, The New York Times began offering its newspaper online, and along with it the crossword puzzles, allowing readers to solve puzzles on their computers. This marked the beginning of a digital expansion that would later include a variety of games beyond crosswords.

2014–2022: Release

In 2014, The New York Times officially launched The New York Times Games with the addition of the Mini Crossword. In the same year, The New York Times Magazine introduced Spelling Bee , a word game in which players guess words from a set of letters in a honeycomb and are awarded points for the length of the word and receive extra points if the word is a pangram. [11] The game was proposed by Will Shortz, created by Frank Longo, and has been maintained by Sam Ezersky. In May 2018, Spelling Bee was published on NYTimes.com, furthering its popularity. [12] In February 2019, the Times introduced Letter Boxed, in which players form words from letters placed on the edges of a square box, [13] followed in June 2019 by Tiles, a matching game in which players form sequences of tile pairings, and Vertex, in which players connect vertices to assemble an image. [14]

2022–present: Acquisition of Wordle and further growth

From left to right: The Crossword, The Mini, Spelling Bee, Tiles, Vertex, Sudoku, Wordle, Letter Boxed, and Connections New York Times Games All Logos.svg
From left to right: The Crossword, The Mini, Spelling Bee, Tiles, Vertex, Sudoku, Wordle, Letter Boxed , and Connections

In January 2022, The New York Times Company acquired Wordle , a word game developed by Josh Wardle in 2021, at a valuation in the "low-seven figures". [15] The acquisition was proposed by David Perpich, a member of the Sulzberger family who proposed the purchase to Knight [16] over Slack after reading about the game. [17] The Washington Post purportedly considered acquiring Wordle, according to Vanity Fair . [16] At the 2022 Game Developers Conference, Wardle stated that he was overwhelmed by the volume of Wordle facsimiles and overzealous monetization practices in other games. [18] Concerns over The New York Times monetizing Wordle by implementing a paywall mounted; [19] Wordle is a client-side browser game and can be played offline by downloading its webpage. [20] Wordle moved to the Times's servers and website in February. [21] The game was added to the NYT Games application in August, [22] necessitating it be rewritten in the JavaScript library React. [23] In November, The New York Times announced that Tracy Bennett would be the Wordle's editor. [24]

In March 2023, NYT Crosswords was renamed to NYT Games to address the application's other games, including Wordle, Spelling Bee, Tiles, and Sudoku. According to Jonathan Knight, chief executive of The New York Times Games, the Times was concerned over how the application would rank in search results for "crossword". [25]

In July 2023, The New York Times introduced Connections , in which players identify groups of words that are connected by a common property. [26] In April, the Times introduced Digits, a number-based game; Digits was shut down in August. [27] In March 2024, The New York Times introduced the beta game Strands , [28] a word game in which players connect letters in a grid to reveal a group of words sharing a common theme. [29]

List of games

Current

Current New York Times Games
NameDescriptionSubscription requirement
DailyArchives/additional
The New York Times Crossword The Crossword is a daily crossword puzzle both online and in newspaper, syndicated to more than 300 other newspapers and journals. The puzzle is created by various freelance constructors and has been edited by Will Shortz since 1993. The crosswords are designed to increase in difficulty throughout the week, with the easiest puzzle on Monday and the most difficult on Saturday. [30] The larger Sunday crossword, which appears in The New York Times Magazine , is an icon in American culture; it is typically intended to be as difficult as a Thursday puzzle. [30] The standard daily crossword is 15 by 15 squares, while the Sunday crossword measures 21 by 21 squares. [31] [32] Yes
The Mini Crossword The Mini Crossword (or simply TheMini) is the smaller version of the Crossword by Joel Fagliano, which is 5×5 Sunday through Friday and 7×7 on Saturdays, and is significantly easier than the traditional daily puzzle.NoYes
Spelling Bee The New York Times Spelling Bee, or simply the Spelling Bee, is a word game in which players are presented with a hexagonal grid of 7 letters arrayed in a honeycomb structure. The player scores points by using the letters to form words consisting of four or more letters.NoYes
Wordle Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. The game was acquired by The New York Times in January 2022 for an undisclosed seven-figure sum; the game was moved to the Times website in February 2022 and remains free for all players as of February 2024.No—
Connections Connections is a word puzzle in which the player has four attempts to clear a grid of sixteen squares. They must select four squares at a time that fit under a specific category (e.g., dog, cat, fish, and parrot for the category "Household Pets"). It was released for PC on June 12, 2023, during its beta phase. As of 2023 it was the second most played game published by Times, behind Wordle . [33] [34] [35] No—
Letter Boxed Letter Boxed is a word puzzle that requires players to create words using letters around a square.NoYes
(for unlimited play)
TilesTiles is a visual game in which players match identical shapes or backgrounds in every tile.NoYes
(for unlimited play and Zen Mode)
VertexVertex is a visual game in which players draw lines between points to create triangles, eventually revealing a hidden image.Yes—
Variety PuzzlesIn addition to the Sunday crossword, a weekly variety puzzle appears in the The New York Times Magazine. This rotates every other week between an acrostic (long written by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon) and other kinds of crosswords (cryptic, puns and anagrams, diagramless, etc.) and word puzzles of other formats (Split Decisions, Spiral, Marching Bands, etc.). [36] The variety page also includes three smaller puzzles: a Spelling Bee by Frank Longo (different from the one online), one of several word puzzle formats by Patrick Berry, and a series of Japanese-style logic puzzles by Wei-Hwa Huang and others. [36] —
SudokuThe New York Times Games also provides Sudoku in the app and online, with puzzles split into three levels of difficulty and refreshing daily.NoYes
Strands [lower-alpha 1] Strands is a word game in which players connect letters in a grid to reveal a group of words sharing a common theme. [38] No—

Former

Former New York Times Games
NameDescription
DigitsDigits was a number puzzle in which players used six provided numbers and basic arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply, or divide) to reach as close to the target number as possible. Each number can only be used once. The game was launched in beta on April 10, 2023, and was shut down on August 8, 2023. [39] [40]

Cultural impact

Since its inception, The New York Times Games has had impact on popular discussions, including online. [41] Games has become one of the main revenue drivers for The New York Times. [3] [4]

Notes

  1. ↑ In beta as of March 2024 [37]

Related Research Articles

<i>The New York Times</i> American daily newspaper

The New York Times (NYT) is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. The New York Times covers domestic, national, and international news, and comprises opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, it serves as one of the country's newspapers of record. As of February 2024, the newspaper has a readership of 9.7 million digital-only subscribers and 660,000 print subscribers, making it the second-largest newspaper in the country by print circulation. The Times has received 137 Pulitzer Prizes as of 2023, the most of any publication, among other accolades. The New York Times is published by The New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, including its current chairman and the paper's publisher, A. G. Sulzberger. The Times is headquartered at The New York Times Building in Manhattan.

Word games are spoken, board, card or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crossword</span> Grid-based word puzzle

A crossword is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of clues. Each white square is typically filled with one letter, while the black squares are used to separate entries. The first white square in each entry is typically numbered to correspond to its clue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Shortz</span> American puzzle creator and editor (born 1952)

William F. Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor who is the crossword editor for The New York Times. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in the invented field of enigmatology. After starting his career at Penny Press and Games magazine, he was hired by The New York Times in 1993. Shortz's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is the country's oldest and largest crossword tournament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Crossword Puzzle Tournament</span>

The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is a crossword-solving tournament held annually in February, March, or April. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz, who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament held in the United States; the 2023 event set an attendance record with more than 750 competitors.

<i>The New York Times</i> Crossword Daily American-style crossword puzzle

The New York Times Crossword is a daily American-style crossword puzzle published in The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games, online on the newspaper's website, syndicated to more than 300 other newspapers and journals, and on mobile apps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merl Reagle</span>

Merl Harry Reagle was an American crossword constructor. For 30 years, he constructed a puzzle every Sunday for the San Francisco Chronicle, which he syndicated to more than 50 Sunday newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Seattle Times, The Plain Dealer, the Hartford Courant, the New York Observer, and the Arizona Daily Star. Reagle also produced crossword puzzles for AARP: The Magazine and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

<i>The New York Times Crosswords</i> 2007 video game

The New York Times Crosswords is a video game released on May 22, 2007, for the Nintendo DS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Kwong</span> American film producer

David Kwong is a magician, puzzle creator, writer, and producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Fagliano</span> American puzzle creator (born 1992)

Joel Fagliano is an American puzzle creator. He is known for his work at The New York Times, where he writes the paper's Mini Crossword. On March 14, 2024, Fagliano became the interim editor of The New York Times Crossword due to editor Will Shortz being on medical leave.

<i>The New York Times</i> Spelling Bee Word game

The New York TimesSpelling Bee, or simply the Spelling Bee, is a word game distributed in print and electronic format by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. Created by Frank Longo, the game debuted in a weekly print format in 2014. A digital daily version with an altered scoring system launched on May 9, 2018.

Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. The mechanics are similar to the 1955 pen-and-paper game Jotto and the television game show franchise Lingo. Wordle has a single daily solution, with all players attempting to guess the same word.

Josh Wardle is a Welsh software engineer who developed the viral web-based word game Wordle. The New York Times Company acquired Wordle from Wardle in late January 2022. Wardle lives in Brooklyn, New York.

<i>The New York Times</i> Connections Word game

Connections is a word puzzle developed and published by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. It was released for PC on June 12, 2023, during its beta phase. It is the second most played game that is published by Times, behind Wordle.

Michael David Sharp, known by the pseudonym Rex Parker, is an American college instructor and blogger known for his blog, Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle, about the New York Times crossword puzzle. Outside of crosswords, Sharp teaches English at Binghamton University in New York.

Tracy Bennett is an American editor and puzzle editor. She edits The New York Times Games products Wordle and Strands.

<i>Letter Boxed</i> Online word puzzle by the New York Times

Letter Boxed is a online word puzzle video game created by Sam Ezersky and published in 2019 on The New York Times Games. It was the third game published in the puzzles section on the New York Times website behind the Crossword and Spelling Bee.

The online platforms of The New York Times encompass the established applications, websites, and other online services developed by The New York Times for its operations.

<i>The New York Times</i> Strands Word game

Strands is an online word game created by The New York Times. Released into beta in March 2024, Strands is a part of the New York Times Games library. Strands takes the form of a word search, with new puzzles released once every day. The original pitch for the game was created by Juliette Seive, and puzzles are edited by Tracy Bennett.

References

  1. ↑ Fagliano, Joel (March 26, 2019). "A Mini History of Our Mini Crossword". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Facing Post-Trump Slowdown, New York Times Eyes $100 Billion Games Market". Bloomberg.com. March 18, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  3. 1 2 Fitzpatrick, Alex (January 29, 2024). "Games are helping the New York Times thrive amid media chaos". Axios.
  4. 1 2 Maher, Bron (March 23, 2023). "How games are powering online subscriptions at The New York Times". Press Gazette. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  5. ↑ Joseph, Seb (March 22, 2023). "'The next level for us': The New York Times eyes better retention for games in subscription drive". Digiday. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  6. ↑ (Unsigned Editorial) "Topics of the Times" The New York Times, November 17, 1924. Retrieved on March 13, 2009.
  7. 1 2 3 Richard F. Shepard "Bambi is a Stag and Tubas Don't Go 'Pah-Pah': The Ins and Outs of Across and Down" The New York Times Magazine, February 16, 1992. Retrieved on March 13, 2009.
  8. ↑ Zimmer, Ben (December 19, 2023). "The Puzzling Story of How Cryptic Crosswords Crossed the Atlantic". Medium. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
  9. ↑ Gómez-García, Salvador; de la Hera Conde-Pumpido, Teresa (June 2023). "Newsgames: The Use of Digital Games by Mass-Media Outlets to Convey Journalistic Messages". Games and Culture . 18 (4): 451. doi:10.1177/15554120221105461. S2CID   258568580 . Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  10. ↑ Usher, Nikki (2014). Making News at the New York Times. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 150. ISBN   9780472035960.
  11. ↑ Amlen, Deb (October 16, 2020). "The Genius of Spelling Bee". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  12. ↑ Lippman, Laura (February 19, 2020). "The NYT Spelling Bee Gives Me L-I-F-E". Slate . Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  13. ↑ Sarkar, Samit (February 1, 2019). "New York Times develops new word game for crossword section". Polygon . Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Tiles and Sudoku Join NYT Games App". The New York Times Company. May 16, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  15. ↑ Pisani, Joseph (January 31, 2022). "New York Times Buys Wordle". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  16. 1 2 Klein, Charlotte (December 19, 2023). "Inside The New York Times' Big Bet on Games". Vanity Fair . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  17. ↑ Bruell, Alexander (July 9, 2023). "He Pushed the New York Times to Buy Wordle. Now He Has to Make Sports Work". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved October 30, 2023.}
  18. ↑ Machkovech, Sam (March 25, 2022). "Wordle creator describes game's rise, says NYT sale was "a way to walk away"". Ars Technica . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  19. ↑ Mukherjee, Supantha; Datta, Tiyashi (February 1, 2022). "Wordle buyout by New York Times draws backlash from fans". Reuters . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  20. ↑ Hollister, Sean (February 1, 2022). "Wordle will be free forever because you can right-click to save the whole game". The Verge . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  21. ↑ Carpenter, Nicole (February 10, 2022). "Wordle streaks return for some players impacted by NYT migration". Polygon . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  22. ↑ Hicks, Jasmine (August 24, 2022). "Wordle snags a place inside the New York Times Crossword app". The Verge . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  23. ↑ Orland, Kyle (March 24, 2023). "How The New York Times managed to avoid ruining Wordle". Ars Technica . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  24. ↑ Orland, Kyle (November 12, 2022). "How "Wordle editor" became a real job at The New York Times". Ars Technica . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  25. ↑ Peters, Jay (May 30, 2023). "The New York Times' push into games meant a major change for its crosswords app". The Verge . Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  26. ↑ Morris, Chris (August 15, 2023). "NYT 'Connections', and the company's quest to create the next 'Wordle'". Fast Company . Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  27. ↑ Peters, Jay (July 18, 2023). "The New York Times is shutting down its math-based puzzle game". The Verge . Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  28. ↑ Bogost, Ian (March 6, 2024). "The New York Times' New Game Is Genius". The Atlantic . Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  29. ↑ Levine, Elie (March 4, 2024). "Putting a New Twist on a Classic Puzzle". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  30. 1 2 Shortz, Will (April 8, 2001). "ENDPAPER: HOW TO; Solve The New York Times Crossword Puzzle". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  31. ↑ "Crossword Puzzle Archive - 1999 - Premium - NYTimes.com". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  32. ↑ "New York Times Specification Sheet". www.cruciverb.com. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  33. ↑ Valinsky, Jordan (August 28, 2023). "Move over Wordle, the New York Times might have found its next hit game". CNN Business . Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  34. ↑ Miller, Chance (August 28, 2023). "'Connections' puzzle game comes to NYT Games app on iPhone and iPad". 9to5Mac . Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  35. ↑ Silberling, Amanda (August 28, 2023). "Connections is The New York Times' most played game after Wordle". TechCrunch . Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  36. 1 2 Shortz, Will (February 19, 2015). "Good Puzzle News in The New York Times Magazine". The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  37. ↑ Bogost, Ian (March 6, 2024). "The New York Times' New Game Is Genius". The Atlantic . Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  38. ↑ Levine, Elie (March 4, 2024). "Putting a New Twist on a Classic Puzzle". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  39. ↑ Amlen, Deb (April 10, 2023). "How We Make Games at The Times". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  40. ↑ Peters, Jay (April 10, 2023). "You can try The New York Times' new math-based puzzle game right now". The Verge. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  41. ↑ "A Cultural Phenomenon: The Intellectual Appeal of NYT Puzzle Games | Arts | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
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