Hasbro, the popular publisher and developer behind games such as Janga, Twister, and Monopoly, has teamed up with The New York Times to bring the newspaper’s acclaimed daily word game, Wordle, to the board games medium. The company will now create “Wordle: The Party Game” in what be the first time a challenge to the supremacy of Scrabble as the ultimate tabletop word game has ever been issued.
Transforming the Popular Word Game into a Board Game
Hasbro commented on the idea of transforming the popular word game into a party game shared by players in the physical world. Adam Biehl, General Manager and Senior Vice President at Hasbro Gaming, told CNN Business that the company first noticed how much fun people were having online.
Biehl and his colleagues noticed that people would want to share their results and that the game is inherently social. Speaking to the media, the executive shed more light on some of the details:
We start with what we’re trying to achieve authentic to the Wordle experience as much as possible because we want to capture what got consumers really interested in the game.
Adam Biehl, General Manager and Senior Vice President at Hasbro Gaming
The new release is also one of the company’s fastest, Biehl, assures, following the adoption of Netflix’s “Bridgeton” and “Stranger Things” themes and building Monopoly games for both shows. S
One of Hasbro’s Fastest and Most Tested Releases
“Stranger Things” has also been picked up as a theme for a new game that Asmodee and Netflix are releasing together. Biehl told the publication that it took Hasbro less than a year to go from a basic concept to realization. The company confirmed that it’s paying a licensing fee to The New York Times.
Biehl also said that Hasbro has done extensive play-testing and revised numerous versions to get where it is today. The executive has faith that the resulting product will come close to the quality and feel of the original game released by The New York Times. The game is expected to release on October 1 with preorders already available.