(NEXSTAR) – When The New York Times purchased the free online game Wordle for seven figures earlier this month, users were told gameplay would remain the same. Many found out Tuesday that that isn’t necessarily the case.
If you haven’t played Tuesday’s game, heads up – there are spoilers below.
If you are one of the countless players who have already done the day’s Wordle and shared the solution with friends and family, you may have found you didn’t have the same word as others.
This appears to be largely dependent on which site you used to play Wordle.
Since the Times’ acquisition of Wordle, the URL for the game has changed to nytimes.com/games/wordle from the original powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle. If you try accessing the latter now, you’ll be redirected to the Times’ website.
But, as some users have found, if you’ve had a Wordle tab open since before The New York Times bought the game, you won’t be auto-directed. Also, if you’re playing the daily game via this hack users uncovered earlier this month, you’re also still playing the original version.
There appeared to be no difference in the solutions from either variation of the puzzle – until Tuesday.
According to one report, when the Times took over Wordle, it removed some of the original 2,315 playable words. You could always view the game’s full list of words thanks to how the webpage was created.
Among the words the company removed is “agora,” which, spoiler alert, was Tuesday’s word on the original version of Wordle. If you play the Times version of the game, you’ll notice that isn’t far off from your solution of “aroma.”
The Times told a reporter from Australia that “obscure words” are slowly being removed “to keep the puzzle accessible to more people.”
Tuesday’s puzzle is most likely not the last time solutions will vary among users. Mashable found that at least one of the words reported to have been removed by the Times is scheduled to appear later this month.
Tired of the Wordle confusion? There are now roughly a dozen different variations of the game including “Worldle.” In this daily game, users must identify a country by its outline in six guesses or less.