Wordle, the game that consists of guessing a five-letter word every day, has flooded social networks with squares of gray, yellow and green colors, in order for players to show their daily progress. Something that seems to have encouraged many other users to play. Although this kind of hobby that only works through the browser has been available for more than a year, it was not until 2022 that its popularity has exploded, and lcopies have not stopped appearing since then.
Some of the Wordle clones work similar to the original game. One of them, for example, offers practically the same interface and mechanics, but changing the language from English to Spanish. Something that does not seem to worry users, since it is also kept as a free option and without advertising. The problem is that many developers have taken advantage of the Wordle fever to launch identical versions that include advertising or even a subscription, with the goal of generating income. In the Google Play Store there are also hundreds of apps that already imitate the original version, some of them have already been removed.
Wordle’s story, in fact, very reminiscent of Flappy Bird, a very popular game that was removed from the app stores at the request of its creator. After this event, the clones did not stop appearing on Google Play and the App Store, forcing both companies to eliminate all those that resembled the original version.
One of the examples that has had the most impact is the app created by developer Zach Shakked, who published an app called “Wordle – The App”. This worked very similar to Wordle, but added a $ 30 annual subscription so that the user can guess an unlimited number of words during the day, instead of one word every 24 hours, like the original game. The popularity of the app, according to Shakked in a tweet, shot up in just a few hours after it was posted, but the idea did not seem to appeal to many netizens, who accused Shakked of a scammer for charging something that should be free. Apple, faced with the avalanche of criticism, decided to eliminate the application.
“I Fucked It Up”: Wordle Clone Creator Apologizes For Copying Popular Game
Just hours after the disappearance of the app that mimicked Wordle with a paid subscription, Shakked published a series of tweets claiming that he intended to turn his game into something different from the original version. The developer says he started his project after realizing that Wordle was a copy of other games and that his trademark was unregistered. His initial plan was generate some money by creating something similar in a weekend, as indicated. “I used a similar user interface because I made the application on a WEEKEND. I was already working on an update with a different user interface,” he says in one of his publications.
Regarding the $ 30-a-year subscription, Shakked says it was optional and not abusive, and that many of his users who downloaded his Wordle clone chose not to pay. Finally, he decided to apologize. “I realize I’ve crossed a line. And surely, surely, I’ll never do anything remotely like this again. I’ve screwed up.” According The Verge, Apple has also removed several applications that copied Wordle and were published in the App Store.