And anyway, isn't the NYT supposed to be reporting news or something? Since when has the most prestigious newspaper become a hub for fooling around?
That seems pretty unlikely. As a funnel to NYT games, the NYT decided this thing was worth over a million. It's very questionable whether Wardle could have extracted a million in revenue from ads on Wordle.
If anything, this is a win for almost everyone. Dev gets paid handsomely, code still remains available for people who care, and the experience seems mostly unchanged for people who don't.
I didn't realize he got over a million bucks. In that case, it was a good move. I doubt ads would've paid that much.