
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>A board game based on the wildly popular online word game Wordle will be released this fall, Hasbro and the <em>New York Times</em><a href="https://investor.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-and-new-york-times-games-are-bringing-wordle-life-new" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> in a joint press release Thursday afternoon, as the <em>Times </em>expands the game’s reach following its splashy January acquisition.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The board game, titled “Wordle: The Party Game,” will come out in October, according to the release.</p>



<p>Gameplay will be similar to the online version: one “host” player will pick a secret five-letter word and other players will have six tries to guess that word, receiving more points based on the number of guesses it takes to get the word right.</p>



<p>Hasbro will pay the <em>Times </em>an undisclosed licensing fee as part of the partnership, Hasbro Gaming&#8217;s Senior Vice President Adam Biehl <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/business/wordle-new-york-times-board-game/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> CNN.</p>



<p>A <em>Times</em> spokesperson declined to comment on the scope of the deal, and Hasbro did not immediately respond to <em>Forbes</em>’ request for comment on the financial details of the deal.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Created by software developer Josh Wardle, Wordle exploded in popularity in late 2021 and early 2022,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/11/wordle-creator-overwhelmed-by-global-success-of-hit-puzzle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">surging</a>&nbsp;from 90 daily users in November to 2 million in January. The&nbsp;<em>Times</em>’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytco.com/press/wordle-new-york-times-games/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;its acquisition of Wordle on January 31 for “a price in the low-seven figures.” The&nbsp;<em>Times&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-04/n-y-times-credits-wordle-for-record-growth-of-games-subscribers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">added</a>&nbsp;a record number of digital games subscribers in the first quarter following the Wordle deal, and Wordle brought tens of millions of new users to the&nbsp;<em>Times</em>, Meredith Kopit Levien said in May.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Spotify&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/07/12/spotify-buys-wordle-music-trivia-spinoff-heardle/?sh=5573a6a57239">announced</a>&nbsp;Tuesday it will buy Heardle, a musical spinoff of Wordle. Spotify said it plans to keep Heardle free to play but will eventually integrate the game into the Spotify app, closely following the&nbsp;<em>Times</em>’ approach to Wordle.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/business/wordle-new-york-times-board-game/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Exclusive: Wordle is being turned into a board game</a>&nbsp;(CNN)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/07/12/spotify-buys-wordle-music-trivia-spinoff-heardle/?sh=5573a6a57239">Spotify Buys Wordle Music Trivia Spinoff Heardle</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><strong><em>By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Wordle Smartphone Game

New York Times Expands Wordle Empire With Board Game

<p>Five minutes, we are told, is all we will get with Dr Deepak Chopra, and there is a gaggle of journalists waiting to meet him, one by one, at the Michelangelo in Sandton, Johannesburg. The ballroom where he is seated, on a lone high-backed, jacquard-print chair at the far end, is somehow, unwittingly, reminiscent of the private durbar of an Indian guru. But the Los Angeles-based Chopra says he is no Indian mystic – “I do not buy into labels”. He is unassuming in a black shirt, jeans and red trainers, and has a calm, gentle voice:</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-3641" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Deepak-Chopra-241x300.jpg" alt="" width="241" height="300" /></p>
<h4>The New York Times has called you ‘a controversial new age guru’. Why controversial?</h4>
<p>I wouldn’t have a career without controversy. If nobody criticizes you, you go unnoticed. I owe my career to my critics, I think of them as my best friends.</p>
<h4>People have accused you of selling false hopes and that your methods are unscientific. How do you react?</h4>
<p>I used to react [at one time], but not anymore. Over the last 35 years, I have been in a way vindicated. There are newer sciences like neuroplasticity and epigenetics, and the mind-body connection is well-established. My courses are recognized by the American Medical Association. I have a faculty position at the Medical School in the University of California. I lecture once a year at Harvard, we have medical students coming for training, the Chopra Center University California is recognized…</p>
<p>You use quantum mechanics for healing. How has that been accepted?</p>
<p>It’s very controversial [and] very highly criticized, but I am rewriting and updating quantum healing now after 30 years because of the new science. Everything I said before is true but there is more science.</p>
<h4>The brain seems to now be a focus in management discussions. Why?</h4>
<p>Because of the findings that you can wire your brain for optimum wellbeing and leadership. You can learn through various techniques mindfulness, self-awareness, contemplation, meditation…you can rewire your brain in a way you feel more connected, but you can also harness intuition, insight, creativity, imagination and leadership skills.</p>
<h4>What about prayer and spirituality in wellbeing?</h4>
<p>When your mind is quiet, and with focused awareness, you can harness the power of intention. What people call prayer I would call focused awareness. There is a chapter in the Yoga Sutras (sacred Indian text) of Patanjali that deals with that. It’s called Dhyan, Dharna, Samadhi – dhyan is meditation, dharna is focused awareness and samadhi is transcendence.</p>
<p>When is emotional and financial wellbeing truly achieved?</p>
<p>Ten percent of your daily happiness experience comes from your bank account, 50% comes from your attitude to life and the remaining comes from the daily choices you make…People in Cuba are more happy than the people in the United States. Because when people focus on relationships, they are much happier.</p>
<h4>Do you see more of that now?</h4>
<p>No [shaking head]…less and less. On their dying day, they would say I wish I had worked one extra day and made more money.</p>
<h4>What is your own net worth?</h4>
<p>If you know your net worth, then you are not wealthy enough. Honestly, I don’t look at my bank statements, I have never seen one. My wife and accountant take care of everything, and they make sure all my taxes are paid. I only carry $300 in my pocket, one credit card and have $30,000 in my bank account. I don’t need more than that for my needs.</p>
<h4>What do you have planned for the year ahead?</h4>
<p>I have written 81 books, and the next is a book of fiction [released in March], called The 13th Disciple. I have done 12 fiction books, out of which four were New York Times bestsellers. I have a book [coming up] at the end of the year called Super Genes; it’s a book about how you activate your genes for optimum wellbeing.</p>


5 Minutes With Deepak Chopra

<p>It’s a haunting image. A terrified woman lies flat on the floor of a coffee shop where she might have been sipping a cappuccino just minutes before. Beside her are her two young children. The woman clings to her son and clutches her daughter by the elbow. Empty bullet casings are scattered around them. But what really makes the picture so powerful is how it depicts a safe and familiar scene as anything but. This is a split second in the life of a mother fighting for her children.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_2947" style="width: 187px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2947" class="size-medium wp-image-2947" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/RTX13XVR-1-177x300.jpg" alt="" width="177" height="300" /><p id="caption-attachment-2947" class="wp-caption-text">Kenya Defence Forces soldiers comb the rooftop of the Westgate shopping mall, on the fourth day since militants stormed into the mall, in Nairobi September 24, 2013. Somalia&#8217;s al Shabaab Islamist group said on Tuesday its militants were still holed up in a Kenyan shopping mall they attacked at the weekend and there were &#8220;countless dead bodies&#8221;, raising fears the death toll could be higher than 62. REUTERS/Noor Khamis (KENYA &#8211; Tags: CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW MILITARY) &#8211; RTX13XVR</p></div></p>
<p>Nairobi-based photojournalist Tyler Hicks, of The New York Times, took the photograph and, in May, won a Pulitzer Prize for it.  A month after it was taken, the woman in the picture contacted him. They found themselves talking about the mall music.</p>
<p>“In covering conflict, it often isn’t the big things that you remember. It’s not the loud explosions or gunfire that your mind focuses on but often it’s some small detail,” he says on a call from Iraq.</p>
<p>“With all the shooting and running around and people screaming there was this very calm music echoing through the shopping mall.”</p>
<p>The woman told him she spent almost five hours lying in that very place with her children, trying to keep them calm and quiet. She remembers quietly singing along with that same mall music to her children to try to distract them and keep them still.</p>
<p>Hicks has risked his life many times to take the photos that have defined his career but this one sticks with him.</p>
<p>“That picture for me sums up what happened there, this is an attack on innocent civilians. The fear on her face and this amazing scene of her trying to hide and protect her kids,” he says.</p>
<p>Since the mall siege a year ago, Nairobi has been under persistent attack. A few months after Westgate, a hand grenade was thrown on to a minibus in the city suburb of Eastleigh. It claimed four lives and maimed at least 40 others. A day earlier, twin bomb blasts rocked the northern town of Wajir, killing one and injuring three others.</p>
<p>But perhaps some of the biggest attacks since Westgate were carried out more recently, further away, on the Kenyan coast. In July, unknown gunmen opened fire at marketplaces in the coastal villages of Hindi and Gamba. As with the mall attack, the gunmen began shooting at market goers indiscriminately. Both attacks claimed 29 lives. Earlier, in June, gun battles raged in Lamu, a resort town, and a number of buildings were set alight. That attack killed 48.</p>
<p>The Somali extremist group, Al-Shabaab, has taken responsibility for each of those attacks. After Kenyan armed forces, supporting a weak UN-backed Somali force, began pursuing the Al Qaeda-linked militants in southern Somalia three years ago, the group has vowed to fight back.</p>
<p>“Kenya’s operations in Somalia are something of a black box,” says Parselelo Kantai, East Africa Editor for The Africa Report, who’s been following the region’s insecurity.</p>
<p>“Because no independent reports have revealed what is going on, Al-Shabaab’s claims of atrocities being committed there by the KDF [Kenya Defense Forces] cannot be ignored&#8230; that’s the reason Al-Shabaab have given for attacking Kenya.”</p>
<p>In May, the group officially announced their war against Kenya.</p>
<p>Beyond the human cost, Hicks’ image of the woman and children tells another story. The abandoned coffee shop, where the family spent hours hiding, is still abandoned today. The economic cost to business owners within the mall was catastrophic. Many lost everything because they did not have the right insurance policy. Even the mall’s owners lost out, despite their insurance pay outs. Until the mall reopens, its owners will lose around $4.5 million every year.</p>
<p>Also, scores of mall employees lost their jobs because of the attack. The mall’s grocery store, Nakumatt, lost three employees during the shootings and its 150-strong staff was made redundant. A new store in another part of the city may rehire some of them.</p>
<p>It has been a year since Westgate and the aftermath is a difficult reality for its survivors. Life for many in Kenya will never be the same again. But if you look closer at the Hicks photograph with the terrified family on the cafe floor, you’ll see that some hope still lingers.</p>


Tag: New York Times

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

New York Times Expands Wordle Empire With Board Game

5 Minutes With Deepak Chopra

A Picture Of Fear That Still Lingers